Institute for Learning to Hold National Conference in Pittsburgh May 11-13

PITTSBURGH—When the Tennessee Department of Education wanted to train more than 30,000 teachers to implement the Common Core State Standards, the national initiative aimed at increasing the quality of education in mathematics and English language arts, the department reached out to the Institute for Learning (IFL) at the University of Pittsburgh. The IFL’s distinctive approach to professional development is the centerpiece of its annual conference, “Collaboration: Key to Building Leadership and Instructional Capacity,” that will be held May 11-13 in Downtown Pittsburgh’s Hotel Monaco, 620 William Penn Pl.

Featured speakers for the three-day event include H. Richard Milner IV, the Helen Faison Endowed Chair of Urban Education at Pitt, director of Pitt’s Center for Urban Education, and author of Rac(e)ing to Class: Confronting Poverty and Race in Schools and Classrooms (Harvard Education Press, 2015). Milner is the 2016 recipient of the John Dewey Society Outstanding Achievement Award, which is awarded annually to scholars for connecting research and practice.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to work with educators to assist them in building tools to more effectively meet the needs of every student,” said Milner. “Educators deserve professional development opportunities to enhance their knowledge and skills.”

Also speaking are Elizabeth City, faculty director of the Doctor of Education Leadership Program at Harvard University and co-author of Meeting Wise: Making the Most of Collaborative Time for Educators (Harvard Education Press, 2014), and Adam Billing, founder of Treehouse Innovation, a consulting company that specializes in change leadership and has worked with clients such as eBay and the University of Cambridge.

Housed at Pitt’s Learning Research and Development Center, the institute was founded in 1995 by Distinguished University Professor Lauren Resnick, who co-directs the IFL with School of Education Associate Dean Anthony Petrosky. The institute was created in response to requests from school districts across the country as they attempted to restructure themselves to respond to the demands for high standards in school for all students. Today, the IFL draws on the extensive experience of faculty in the School of Education and the multidisciplinary faculty expertise of LRDC and serves as a liaison between researchers at Pitt and working educators. 

“There’s nothing quite like the IFL in the country,” said Resnick. “We really roll up our sleeves and get into the work. Many university-based initiatives work with local school districts, but, as far as I know, we’re the only one that works on such an extensive national level.” 

Central to the institute’s success is the notion that fusing collaboration with innovation, research with practice, and learning with teaching is essential to innovation in education. The IFL delivers the most recent research about learning, principles of instruction, and professional development to schools across the country via a corps of senior educational practitioners who visit schools and work face-to-face with teachers and administrators.

“The institute’s distinguished work over the past 20 years with educators across the entire spectrum of schooling has produced compelling evidence that we all grow when we collaborate,” said Petrosky.

For more information on the conference, visit http://ifl.pitt.edu/index.php/events/index/2016_national_conference/agenda. 

About the IFL
The institute’s work includes the development of leadership tools and instructional materials in language arts, mathematics, science, and history/social studies for grades pre-K through 12. By combining curriculum design and assessments with professional development tools, the institute builds capacity to support implementation at the classroom, school, and district levels. Since its inception, the institute has worked with school districts across the country, including New York City, Los Angeles, Denver, and Pittsburgh, reaching more than 3.6 million students in 70 districts in 33 states to date. 

About LRDC
LRDC has been a leading center for research on learning and instruction for more than 50 years. A major source of its success has been its commitment to multidisciplinary approaches to basic and applied research and development. LRDC’s mission centers on the combination of important research on learning in its cognitive, social, and brain aspects and the application of research-based innovations to learning in schools, museums, universities, and workplaces.

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