The general purpose of the Institute's Teacher Quality — Reading and Writing (Teacher Quality - Read/Write) research program is to identify effective strategies for improving the performance of current classroom teachers in ways that increase student learning and school achievement. The Institute intends for the Teacher Quality — Read/Write research program to fulfill five goals: (1) exploring the relations between malleable factors (e.g., practices of teachers and other instructional personnel; professional development programs) and student outcomes in reading or writing, as well as mediators and moderators of the relations between student outcomes and these malleable factors, for the purpose of identifying potential targets of intervention; (2) developing innovative programs and practices for teacher professional development that are intended to improve teacher practices and through them student learning and achievement; (3) evaluating the efficacy of teacher professional development programs and practices that are intended to improve teacher practices and through them student learning and achievement; (4) evaluating the effectiveness of teacher professional development programs that are implemented at scale and intended to improve teacher practices and through them student learning and achievement; and (5) developing and validating new assessments or validating existing assessments for teachers of reading or writing against measures of student achievement.
Under these goals, the Institute supports research on teacher professional development interventions and teacher assessments relevant to (a) teaching reading or writing from kindergarten through high school and (b) teaching basic skills in reading or writing to adults. By "professional development" the Institute refers to in-service training of or tools for current instructional personnel.
Long term outcomes of the Teacher Quality — Read/Write program will be an array of tools and strategies (e.g., in-service programs, assessments) that have been demonstrated to be effective for improving and assessing teacher performance in ways that are linked to increases in student achievement.
Amount: $100,000 - $1.2 (3 years)
Date due: June 24, 2010
For more information, click here.
