Welcome!
The Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy investigates efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning, the teacher workforce, and the systems of support for teachers’ work, in various contexts and at multiple levels of the K-12 educational system.
To that end, Center researchers identify ways that policy actions, leadership, and reform efforts guide, direct, and support teaching and learning, thereby informing and enhancing the quality of learning opportunities in U.S. elementary and secondary schools.
Research highlights
Exploring System Learning
In collaboration with The Spencer Foundation, CTP researchers have been at work over the past several years on the way student, professional, and system learning are implicated in renewal efforts. This work came to a focus recently in three CTP Occasional Papers that consider the application of organizational and socio-cultural learning theories to district instructional reform. Please see the following occasional papers:
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Architectures for Learning: A Comparative Analysis of Two Urban School Districts
by Mary Kay Stein and Cynthia Coburn, January 2007.
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Policy Implementation and Learning: How Organizational and Socio-Cultural Learning Theories Elaborate District Central Office Roles in Complex Educational Improvement Efforts
by Meredith Honig, January 2007.
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Using Sociocultural Theory to Link Individual and Organizational Learning Processes: The Case of Highline School District's Instructional Improvement Reform
by Chrysan Gallucci, January 2007.
About the Center
Established in 1997, the Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy (CTP) was created as a consortium of several major universities: Stanford University, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Washington (lead institution). One of 12 national research centers, supported by a grant from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) of the United States Department of Education (Award #R308B970003).