Grant To Fund Video Repository of Teaching Excellence in Math and Science

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 11/27/12

A consortium of education organizations will be developing an online repository of classroom videos to help new teachers learn from master instructors how to teach math and science topics in third through sixth grades. The video repository is part of a project funded by a $3 million grant from the United States Department of Education and includes participants from Stanford University and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), as well as the Teacher Performance Assessment Consortium (TPAC), which AACTE helps to operate.

Those entities have already worked together to create an assessment tool to evaluate student teachers' readiness for the classroom. That tool, edTPA, is based on standards developed by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

The newest initiative, ATLAS, or Accomplished Teaching, Learning, and Schools, will focus on teachers in seven school districts and faculty from six universities in New York, Tennessee, and Washington. The goal is to build a "pipeline of teaching excellence," the participants said in a statement.

Experienced teachers who have earned National Board certification must prepare a portfolio that includes video recordings of them at work in the classroom. The best among them will have their videos featured in the repository.

Faculty from Stanford will manage development of guidelines for integrating ATLAS into teacher preparation programs. The videos will be used to "inform and enhance" the practices followed by new teachers. "Importantly, creation of this online repository will provide a tremendous resource for student teachers to watch and read and understand what makes good teachers great," said Ray Pecheone, executive director of the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity.

"This is cutting-edge work at the nexus of the nation's two most important educational challenges: promoting educator effectiveness and strengthening science and math teaching and learning," added Stanford's Linda Darling-Hammond, a co-principal investigator of the grant. "The integration of the National Board's repository of master teacher certifications into teacher preparatory programs will be extraordinarily beneficial."

Sharon Robinson, president of the AACTE, noted that the use of the videos by education students will allow them to "start their careers with a shared understanding of what accomplished teaching looks like and a clear expectation of where they are headed."

The grant money is also funding a five-year research project that examines the impact the use of the repository will have on the skills of early-career teachers.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • open laptop in a college classroom with holographic AI icons like a brain and data charts rising from the screen

    4 Ways Universities Are Using Google AI Tools for Learning and Administration

    In a recent blog post, Google shared an array of education customer stories, showcasing ways institutions are using AI tools like Gemini and NotebookLM to transform both learning and administrative tasks.

  • illustration of a human head with a glowing neural network in the brain, connected to tech icons on a cool blue-gray background

    Meta Launches Stand-Alone AI App

    Meta Platforms has introduced a stand-alone artificial intelligence app built on its proprietary Llama 4 model, intensifying the competitive race in generative AI alongside OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI.

  • three main icons—a cloud, a user profile, and a padlock—connected by circuit lines on a blue abstract background

    Report: Identity Has Become a Critical Security Perimeter for Cloud Services

    A new threat landscape report points to new cloud vulnerabilities. According to the 2025 Global Threat Landscape Report from Fortinet, while misconfigured cloud storage buckets were once a prime vector for cybersecurity exploits, other cloud missteps are gaining focus.

  • Stylized illustration showing cybersecurity elements like shields, padlocks, and secure cloud icons on a neutral, minimalist digital background

    Microsoft Announces Security Advancements

    Microsoft has announced major security advancements across its product portfolio and practices. The work is part of its Secure Future Initiative (SFI), a multiyear cybersecurity transformation the company calls the largest engineering project in company history.