Urban Study Faults Teacher-Development Programs

By Ann Bradley

Despite the rigorous demands on teachers, most professional-development activities designed to help them hold little promise for systemwide change, a new study of four urban districts concludes.

Staff-development programs in the districts were "fragmented, in need of strategic vision, and rarely clear to teachers," the study found.

It was commissioned by the Teacher Networks Group, an association of federal, private, and corporate funders that supports teacher-centered reforms such as the Rockefeller Foundation's Collaboratives for Humanities and Arts Teaching and the Ford...