Teachers and others may also click on the Curricular Resources button to search and download any of the more than 2,000 innovative Curriculum Units for K-12 classroom use that have been developed by teachers as one result of their seminar participation.
The Yale National Initiative is an effort under the auspices of the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute to replicate its longstanding university-public school partnership model for teacher professional development and school improvement in other school districts around the nation. A National Demonstration Project, 1997-2002, supported by major national foundation grants and Yale University, studied the best methods for establishing new Teachers Institutes in school districts with different educational needs and resources. As a result of that Project, thriving Teachers Institutes now operate in Houston (in partnership with the University of Houston) and Pittsburgh (in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University and Chatham College).
A recently released evaluation of the National Demonstration Project by a team under the direction of Professor Rogers M. Smith, Chair of the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Political Science, concludes: "The Institute approach significantly strengthens teachers in all five of the major dimensions of teacher quality." These dimensions are:
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1). Teachers who really know their subjects;
2). Teachers with good basic writing, math, and oral presentation skills;
3). Teachers with high expectations of their students;
4). Teachers who are enthusiastic about teaching; and
5). Teachers who can motivate all students to learn.
The National Demonstration Project has also shown that the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute's distinctive and successful model of professional development can be swiftly replicated in other school districts with varied needs, population composition and resources. U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, who oversaw the establishment of the Houston Teachers Institute, said, "I applaud the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute for supplying models for what universities should do. Its projects are not just inspiring; they are creating an environment in which partnerships will be the norm, not the exception."
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