Professional Development
on Use of Instructional Materials
Sustainability
The Chicago Math & Science Initiative (CMSI) had sustainability in mind when it designed and implemented its professional development strategy. First, the CMSI chose a small number of instructional materials to support: four math and four science. By limiting the number of instructional materials available for CMSI support, the OMS kept the resource requirements for delivering professional development manageable. This allowed the office to provide materials-specific professional development to teachers at all grade levels and at different levels of experience. By utilizing outside professional development centers at the start, OMS was able to train an internal cadre of PDLs at a rate to meet the increasing need, as more teachers and more schools implemented the CMSI materials. To manage the scale of this endeavor, OMS needed to develop and coordinate databases and schedules within and across CPS departments.
