Political Quotes

“today I am introducing legislation, along with my friend and colleague, the senior Senator from Connecticut, Mr. Dodd, that will strengthen the content knowledge and instructional skills of our present K-12 teacher workforce and thus ultimately raise student achievement. The Teachers Professional Development Institutes Act would establish eight new Teachers Professional Development Institutes throughout the nation each year over the next 5 years based on the model which has been operating at Yale University for over 30 years. Every Teachers Institute would consist of a partnership between an institution of higher education and the local public school system in which a significant proportion of the students come from low-income households. These Institutes will strengthen the present teacher workforce by giving each participant an opportunity to gain more sophisticated content knowledge and a chance to develop curriculum units with other colleagues that can be directly applied in their classrooms. We know that teachers gain confidence and enthusiasm when they have a deeper understanding of the subject matter that they teach and this translates into higher expectations for their students and an increase in student achievement.”