PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The Path to Success
Through federally funded development and research projects, long-term contracts with a wide range of educational organizations, and international development work, 21PSTEM staff have created and conducted thousands of hours of highly commended professional development for teachers, school and district leaders, university faculty, and out-of-school time educators. These professional development sessions have included: innovative pedagogical approaches for mathematics and science, laboratory and other project-based activities, curriculum integration, curriculum design and development, formative assessment and the use of data at all levels, all areas of school and district leadership, organizational innovation and improvement, and policy development and implementation.
21PSTEM has developed its professional development expertise from:
The staff’s extensive experience in the both the classroom and in school district administration, including leadership of professional development activities at the district level in both urban and suburban contexts.
Through the design of professional development programs and institutes funded by the federal government and educational organizations and in partnership with some of the leading innovators in educational reform:
In cooperation with Dylan Wiliam, 21PSTEM worked with hundreds of math and science teachers to improve their formative assessment practices.
In cooperation with cognitive scientists and education researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh, and Temple University, 21PSTEM designed professional development to help teachers take advantage of cognitive science principles in their instruction.
In cooperation with the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania, SchoolNet, the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, and the University of Colorado, staff at 21PSTEM organized national workshops on data-driven decision-making for educational leaders that have been rated by attendees as some of the most impactful professional development of their career.
In cooperation with the Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM (TIES) and The Franklin Institute, 21PSTEM has developed and delivered hundreds of hours of professional development to Egyptian teachers, school leaders, government officials, and university professors on all aspects of instruction and assessment of o.ne the most innovative integrated and projected-focused STEM schools in the world
Through a NSF grant for the Proficiency Assessment and Reassessment of Learning Outcomes (PARLO) program, 21PSTEM staff have led summer workshops and coordinated teacher PLCs on formative assessment, differentiated instruction, developing learning outcomes, how to monitor evidence of learning and reassessment techniques.
As executive coaches for school leaders in underperforming and underprivileged schools and districts, as facilitator of a group of executive coaches, and as a researcher on how coaches improve leadership practice in cooperation with Lehigh University’s Center for Developing Urban Educational Leaders.
21PSTEM staff who have this experience can work with your team at any level, from a single school to an entire country, including cooperating with researchers, to develop and deliver cutting edge professional development in line with the current research on adult learning and impactful teacher development on-the-job learning in the areas of innovative mathematics and science pedagogy, the general principles of effective instruction for deep conceptual understanding and high cognitive demand application, formative assessment approaches, high cognitive demand and learning outcome based paper and pencil and laboratory/project-based assessment development, data use, and leadership for instructional improvement.