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Professional Development Opportunities for Teachers
Stanford Graduate School of Education offers a variety of professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers to expand their skills. We provide a wide range of support for K-12 teachers, including on-site and online workshops, professional certification, and summer institutes.
Center for the Support of Excellence in Teaching (CSET)
CSET supports teachers in Bay Area school districts, through both intensive summer programs and content-rich, context-specific mentoring programs. Its programs weave together intellectually rigorous content with approaches for teaching that content. This work focuses initially on three core content areas that take advantage of Stanford faculty expertise and respond to critical needs in the schools: secondary humanities, middle school mathematics, and elementary science.
CSET’s summer programs for teachers include:
- The Partner School Induction Program, conducted in partnership with the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP). Novice teachers in STEP’s partner schools receive support from CSET mentors in planning math lessons, learning to teach writing, and designing innovative science lessons.
- The Stanford Summer Teaching Institute, an annual four-day symposium focused on the development of educators. The institute offers workshops in a range of areas, including teaching tools that can be used at all content and grade levels, innovative pedagogical practices, and ways to manage student learning. All courses offer opportunities to practice new methods, and time to design learning materials for individual classrooms, as well as time to connect (and reconnect) with colleagues.
National Board Resource Center (NBRC)
NBRC offers support to teachers earning their National Board Certification, promotes teacher leadership, and improves the quality of teaching in California schools. Its successful support program is staffed by Board-certified teachers and is open to any eligible candidate. NBRC helps teachers and administrators learn about ways to use National Board certification to advance professional practice and promote teaching quality in schools by providing information and support at its sessions at Stanford and through related outreach throughout the Bay Area.
Problem-Solving Cycle
The Problem-Solving Cycle is a series of three interconnected professional development workshops for mathematics teachers, organized around a rich mathematics task. This task enables teachers to share a common learning, planning, and teaching experience, allowing them to think deeply about mathematics content and instruction. Together with a knowledgeable facilitator, teachers reflect on their areas of expertise and areas in which they want to improve and identify their goals for the workshop, including goals for learning mathematics content and exploring new pedagogical practices.
Stanford Program in English Language Learner Education (PELLE)
The Stanford Program in English Language Learner Education offers professional development opportunities for educators working with English Language Learners, including K-12 teachers, principals, and school district administrators. Its programs include:
- The Stanford CTEL/CLAD Program, a three-course online program that prepares teachers to effectively address the academic needs of English Language Learners and directly leads to CTEL/CLAD certification. Teachers enrolled in the program learn how to support students' English language development through standards-based, content area learning by analyzing videos of exemplary classroom teaching, viewing short video lectures, completing carefully selected readings, and engaging in lively online discussions of course topics with peers.
- The English Language Learner Leadership Network, funded by the S.H. Cowell Foundation, is a consortium of district leaders from several small- to medium-sized school districts in Central and Northern California. Representatives meet regularly to discuss challenges and share solutions associated with increasing academic achievement for English Learners. Participation in the network is by invitation only.
