DeLauro Introduces Legislation to Aid Teacher Development

For Immediate Release
Friday, July 9, 2004

Washington, DC - Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT) today introduced legislation that would create partnerships across the country between institutions of higher education and low-income school districts to enhance teacher skills and development. The Teacher Professional Development Institutes Act would establish eight new Teacher Professional Development Institutes in different states each year over the next five years.

The legislation would create institutes that would be modeled after the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, a highly successful partnership between the New Haven Public School System and Yale University, which has been in operation since 1978. The bill has also been introduced in the Senate by Senators Dodd and Lieberman.

"I can't think of anything more important to improve student academic achievement than a well-trained teacher" said DeLauro. "These programs would allow teachers the opportunity to gain more sophisticated content knowledge and a chance to develop a curriculum that can be directly applied in their classrooms."

The Institutes would hold annual professional seminars in the humanities and sciences and work with program participants to bring the curriculum and lessons of the seminars to the classroom. Every Teacher Institute would consist of a partnership between an institution of higher education and the local public school system in which a significant proportion of the students come from low-income households. For example, the Yale-New Haven program has offered several thirteen-session seminars each year, led by Yale faculty, on topics that teachers have selected to enhance their mastery of the specific subject area they teach.

The Institutes benefit both students and teachers, with participating teachers reporting they have gained confidence in their deeper understanding of the subject matter and enthusiastically deliver their new curriculum to the classroom - which translates into higher expectations for their students and in turn, higher student achievement.