CIC’s Teachers for the 21st Century program (Teach 21), funded by the Microsoft Corporation, is establishing a national faculty development network for college and university faculty members responsible for teacher preparation programs. During the program’s first two years, a group of 19 leadership institutions is working to develop this program (see list of participating institutions in the summer 2006 Independent). The design of the Teachers for the 21st Century program includes work by institutional teams, national meetings, shared readings, webinars, clusters of institutional teams and individuals, and shared lessons and assignments.

Each institution is represented by a team that includes faculty members from an institution’s education department as well as faculty members from the disciplines in which future teachers major, such as mathematics or English. The teams were selected on the basis of the success they have already demonstrated in infusing 21st century learning into their teacher preparation programs and for their plans to build on their successes during the 2006–2007 academic year. For example, one of the teams is engaged in a campus-wide project in which the science and mathematics curriculum for all students (including future teachers) is being infused with inquiry-based learning strategies. Faculty from this college’s education and math/science departments spearheaded these strategies, which are now being spread campus-wide. Another team is focusing on extending students’ use of portfolios by piloting the use of an eportfolio system beginning in January 2007. This institution’s education department has been requiring portfolios from their students since 1998. Their participation in CIC’s Teach21 project stimulated a process that led their team and their colleagues to evaluate various eportfolio packages last semester, pick a finalist, and pilot its use this semester.

A key national component of the program is a monthly online seminar providing access to national leaders in teacher education. Three webinars were conducted in fall 2006. The first, in October, featured the Quest Atlantis simulated environment with Sasha Barab, the program’s creator and an internationally recognized leader in the use of online games to enhance 21st century learning for children in grades 4–6. In the November webinar, Ann Lieberman and Desiree Pointer Mace of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching introduced the Foundation’s Quest Project, which has created a library of web-based videos and materials highlighting exemplary teaching and teacher preparation. The third webinar, in December, was an opportunity to exchange ideas with Arthur Levine, the author of a controversial and influential new report, Educating School Teachers, on the current status of the nation’s teacher preparation programs.

During the program’s third and fourth years, teams from up to 100 additional institutions will join the program.