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Bridging the Educational Gap: Connecting Policy to Practice
Seventy-five Outstanding Teachers Chosen to Participate in Summer Institute Bringing Together Practitioners and Policymakers to Improve Student Achievement
(YOUR CITY) – (YOUR NAME) of (YOUR SCHOOL) has been selected to participate in the Teachers Network Policy Institute (TNPI) summer institute in Snowbird, Utah from Sunday, July 29th through Sunday, August 5th, 2001. Participants will represent many different communities from the following states: California, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, North Carolina, New York, Virginia, and Wyoming.
The purpose of this weeklong education institute is to ensure that the teachers voice is included in deciding federal, state, and local education policy initiatives. The goal is to connect policy to classroom practice in order to improve student achievement.
The institute will explore such pressing education issues as:
- Community building
- Creating partnerships with policymakers
- Leadership skill building
- Expanding teachers’ spheres of influence in educational policy
- Conducting action research in the classroom—utilizing hands-on, practical classroom experience to make crucial educational policy recommendations.
Governor Jim Geringer of Wyoming and Adam Urbanski, Codirector of TURN (Teachers Union Reform Network), will be joining teachers at the institute; as they discuss how to influence state policy at the state and national levels. Dr. Frances Rust, Professor at New York University and advisor to TNPI, will guide teachers in developing research that impacts both practice and policy. Staff from The Education Commission of the States will also be at the institute, sharing their knowledge and experience to create a vision for a 21st Century, kindergarten through college system.
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Over the past several years, study after study has affirmed that teacher expertise is one of the most important
factors in student achievement; yet educational policy continues to be made without the voice of the teacher. These teachers and policymakers are coming together in Snowbird, Utah to bridge that gap.
Participants at the Snowbird institute are part of an initiative called the Teachers Network Policy
Institute, a group of teachers nationwide working to address the need to connect educational policy to classroom practice. TNPI, a project launched by Teachers Network (www.teachersnetwork.org) in 1996, offers teachers the opportunities, resources, and support they need to become influential contributors to policy discussion and formulation.
Policy recommendations resulting from the TNPI Summer institute will be pooled and refined for publication, resulting in a comprehensive document that includes anticipated costs, obstacles to reform, and specific suggestions for action. Teachers Network will publish and publicize this document through its partner organizations and other major education associations, and distribute copies to education leaders throughout the country.
TNPI’s efforts are made possible by funding provided by the MetLife Foundation. Additional funding includes Booth Ferris, Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rita J and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation.
TNPI fellows complete action research studies of their own classrooms and schools, to bring research about teachers, their worlds, and their work into the discourse about and formulation of educational policy. These studies are designed to influence policy at the national, state, and local levels in the following domains: school organization and governance; the professional development of teachers, including teacher preparation programs; instruction and curriculum development; and assessment of teaching and learning.
Teachers Network is a professional community of teachers and educators working together to improve student achievement. Real progress in education reform will be possible only with true collaboration among educators, policymakers, and the public.
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