[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 93 (Thursday, July 8, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1333]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          THE TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTES ACT

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                          HON. ROSA L. DeLAURO

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, July 8, 2004

  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Teacher 
Professional Development Institutes Act, legislation based on a unique 
and highly successful partnership between the New Haven Public School 
System and Yale University. Based on the model which has been operating 
at Yale for over 25 years, my proposal would establish eight new 
Teacher Professional Development Institutes throughout the country each 
year over the next five years.
  Today, it is more important than ever for our nation's teachers to 
have access to the skills and resources they need to prepare our 
children for the future. Since 1978, the Institute has been providing 
area educators with the opportunity to strengthen themselves 
professionally through annual seminars in the humanities and sciences--
by working with program participants to bring the curriculum and 
lessons of the seminars to the classroom.
  In this bill, 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. The program strengthens the present teacher 
workforce by giving participants the opportunity to gain more 
sophisticated content knowledge and a chance to develop curriculum 
units that can be directly applied in classrooms. For example, the 
Yale-New Haven program it is based on 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 that they teach.
  The result is that teachers have been found to gain confidence in 
their deeper understanding of the subject matter and enthusiastically 
deliver their new curriculum to the classroom--qualities that translate 
into higher expectations for their students and in turn, higher student 
achievement.
  And student achievement is what this effort is about. By allowing 
teachers to determine the seminar subjects--by providing them the 
resources to develop curricula for their classroom and their students--
this legislation lifts up our students by empowering teachers. With a K 
through 12 teacher shortage forecast in the near-future, those already 
teaching will do the majority of teaching in the classrooms in the very 
near future. As such, it is imperative that we invest in methods to 
strengthen our present teaching workforce.
  Like the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute before it, we believe this 
program can provide a model for communities around the country. And so, 
it is my distinct honor to introduce the Teacher Professional 
Development Institutes Act, and I look forward to its consideration in 
this body.

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