Why are you changing your name?
It’s more than a name change. It’s a signal of our ongoing commitment to providing the best services to schools, to collaboration with other departments and researchers in other sites, and to our future thinking about literacy. Aided by its new position within the Continuing Professional Services (CPS) division at Teachers College, Advancing Literacy will be better equipped to foster conversations and collaboration among different evidence-based approaches to literacy.
How will the new structure impact the professional development that TC provides?
It won’t. We remain the committed, thoughtful partners who have provided professional development in schools and at institutes for the last 40 years.
Is Advancing Literacy going to be offering institutes, conference days, and the PD teachers and principals have engaged with for years?
Yes! You can see our upcoming institutes, workshops, and PD events for educators and families on our site, and applications are opening now for many of these events. You’ll see many institutes that teachers and school leaders depend on, such as the coaching institutes. You’ll also see new ones, such as a High School institute on close reading and writing about reading. You’ll find the same attention to reading and writing workshop, to culturally responsive pedagogies, to student-centered classrooms in these institutes, and you’ll also learn from new learning alliances and voices at Teachers College.
Are the TCRWP staff at Advancing Literacy?
Yes, yes they are and they are extraordinary. Our staff developers will continue to bring their passion, their energy, their love of teaching, children, and learning to everything they do at TC. You’ll see Amanda Hartman leading the primary work, and lead staff developers such as Christine Holley and Natalie Louis in that group. You’ll see Brooke Geller, Kristin Smith, Carl Ciaramitaro, as lead staff in 3-5. You’ll find all your secondary staff that you love, from Katy Wischow who leads the 6-12 group to Kat Schecter, Heather Burns, all of them! They are too many to list but you can go to our staffing page and find all the full time TC staff developers.
What is your connection to Units of Study and other curricula?
Units of Study in Teaching Reading, Writing, and Phonics are published by Heinemann. While many Advancing Literacy staff are co-authors on Units of Study, it is not the only curriculum we support. If you are a school or district devoted to Units of Study, staff developers are ready to support you, as always, and to help you adapt and adjust the curriculum so that it is personal and reflects your voices and goals. Staff developers are also ready to help teachers invent and design curriculum that is local and responsive and inclusive or to work with whatever curriculum the district uses.
How will the schools who are contracted with TC for the 23-24 year be impacted?
They won’t. All schools who are contracted with Teachers College for the 23-24 year will retain the same high-quality professional development they have come to expect.
Will Advancing Literacy provide staff development outside of Units of Study?
Indeed, staff developers love to innovate, to co-construct, to be responsive to groups of educators and students. They love to create new curricula in collaboration with teachers. They love to study data and student work and students in the classroom, to develop feedback, conferring, and small group work. They love to dive into new terrains of digital literacies. They love to support multilingual learners and explore multiliteracies. Our organization began as a professional development organization dedicated to promoting student voice and teacher innovation. We remain that.
Will schools keep their contracts with TC and their staff developers if they have a TC contract for Professional Development?
Yes! We know how much you love your staff developers. If you have a contract with TC, you still have a contract with TC and all the staff are looking forward to working with you. You should have heard from Emily Butler Smith about your staffing, and your staff developers will be reaching out about dates. If you have any staffing questions, you can email Emily.