Collaborative Online K-12 Teacher Professional Development Grows in 2020-21

In response to COVID and the Collaborative’s focus on diversity, the Collaborative is growing its National Endowment for the Arts-funded national online teacher professional development for 2020-21.

A number of K-12 teachers completed the first iteration of this professional development in the spring semester, 2020. Due to COVID, all experiences for teachers and students were virtual. Teachers who completed the course commented on the effectiveness of the course and its strategies, lessons, and examples. Since all their experiences were entirely virtual, they will be able to return to the course in 2020-21 and apply the lessons and the Collaborative’s research-validated assessments in their in-person classrooms with students. 

They will be joined by teachers who were not able to complete the course in spring, 2020, in addition to teachers whom the Collaborative is recruiting for this opportunity. This includes teachers of color and teachers of diverse students who are being recruited.

For those teachers who are new to this K-12 online professional development in academic year 2020-21, there will be an an additional focus  on culturally responsive teaching (CRT).  Many STEAM strategies strongly dovetail with CRT strategies. This year, the project will look at effective strategies for integrating CRT with the online STEAM teacher professional development. (Please see Culturally Responsive Teaching and Collaborative K-12 STEAM Effective Practices in this newsletter.)

---