Making Learning Joyfully Rigorous for Students

Dear Friends and Supporters,

At Center for Inspired Teaching, we are continuing to strengthen Washington, DC’s public schools by investing in their teachers. Through inspiring new and veteran teachers, we are enabling them to unlock the innate potential in students across the District and contributing to a positive trend of empowerment in our communities.

Our programs are designed to improve teachers’ ability to think critically and solve problems, so they can do the same for their students, resulting in higher student achievement in school and in life. Teachers are themselves taught how to improve the emotional climate of their classroom, so that children feel safe and can focus on learning, resulting in improvements in behavior and a change in students’ life aspirations. As a result of these changes, students are more engaged in learning and less disruptive, thus decreasing the time teachers spend dealing with discipline problems and increasing the time spent teaching.

Inspired Teaching's most recent evaluation results demonstrate that: * Inspired Teaching teachers spend over 50% less time on discipline than those who have not taken our programs. * Inspired Teachers increase student participation by spending more classroom time in productive learning activities (83% vs. 74%) and far more often require students to be active participants in their learning (60% vs. 17%). * Inspired Teachers engage students in much higher levels of thinking. Students in Inspired Teachers’ classrooms spend more time performing higher-order skills (43% vs. 26%) and Inspired Teachers ask more questions that require students to think at complex levels (62% vs. 32%). * Inspired Teachers create an environment conducive to learning by focusing their discipline strategies on problem-solving and building relationships, rather than punitive behavior modification systems (95% vs. 37%). * Inspired Teaching measures five elements of the work environment that research has shown to relate strongly to teacher job satisfaction and retention: leadership/school culture; professional development; facilities and resources; teacher empowerment; and time. Evaluations at partner schools show improvement in all of these areas.

Our work continues to be in high demand with principals and teachers requesting more school partnerships and programming, in response we have nearly tripled our staff. This year we inaugurated the Inspired Principal Institute, designed to reinvigorate and support veteran principals leading DC area schools. And, in this academic year we have worked with nearly 20 different schools!

It is my sincere hope that you will join us as we continue to transform DC’s schools through the power of Inspired Teachers and the potential of all students.

Sincerely, Aleta Margolis Executive Director

P.S. To learn more about Inspired Teaching's research-based professional development programs, which range from in-depth school partnerships to professional development courses for teachers, please visit the organization's Web site: www.inspiredteaching.org.