Professional Development

Continuous learning – acquiring knowledge and developing new skills – has always been a hallmark of effective teachers in our K-12 classrooms. So what's different today? All teachers are expected to embrace continuous learning as an essential strategy for improving student achievement. To underscore the significance of this strategy, the US Department of Education is directing an estimated $87 million in the 2011-12 academic year for professional development of Arizona's K-12 teachers.

The Center for Teacher Success helps Arizona's teachers become more effective with a broad portfolio of workshops and academies. Most of the Center's professional development opportunities focus on teaching skills designed for today's classroom challenges. The Center also assists teachers who want to enhance the rigor of their mathematics and science instruction.

Contracted Services
The Center's contracted services are delivered onsite. Based on research-validated best practices, these workshops and related support services are customized to the needs of each district or school. Our clients regard them as most impactful when part of a multi-year program of school improvement. Our contracted professional development workshops include:

  • Understanding by Design
  • Curriculum Mapping, Unit and Lesson Planning
  • Fundamentals of Teaching for Learning: The Essential Elements of Instruction
  • Classroom-Based Assessment
  • Becoming a Learning School
  • Differentiated Instruction and Response to Intervention
  • Leading in a Professional Learning Community
  • Keys to Instructional Excellence
  • Mathematic Foundations: Teaching the New Math Standards -- COMING SOON

STEM Summer Academies
Our Summer STEM Academies bring teams of teachers together from a variety of schools to participate in three different weeks of intensive, STEM-focused professional development. These programs enable teachers to make the connection for students between classroom subject content and the real world—why the study of science and math is both interesting and relevant to their future. Summer STEM Academies include:

  • Teaching Inquiry-Based Science: an Institute for K-8 Educators
  • Global Climate Change in the Southwest: an Academy for 3rd - 6th Grade Educators
  • Global Climate Change in the Southwest: an Academy for 7th - 12th Grade Educators

Why Schools Partner with the Center for Teacher Success

  • All of the Center's programming is aligned with Arizona State and Common Core Standards.
  • We are approved through the Greater Phoenix Purchasing Consortium of Schools (GPPCS), the Strategic Alliance for Volume Expenditures (SAVE) and the Arizona Department of Education.
  • The Center has been providing professional development as a nonprofit education organization in Arizona for nearly 10 years.
  • Our trainers average 30+ years of experience teaching and training in Arizona schools.

To meet our team of trainers, click here.