Center for Transformative Teaching & Learning receives $1 million to expand access to professional development for educators to translate scientific findings on how students learn into their classrooms

CZI’s education work is aimed at ensuring every young person enters adulthood with the life skills and abilities they need to reach their full potential.

Our approach to getting there is defined by a focus on “whole child” outcomes, creating a tailored teaching and learning experience for each child, and informed by the latest science about how students and adults learn and develop. We believe in bringing that learning science in practical ways to teachers and classrooms.

Unlike in medicine, where practice is continually informed by the latest advances in research and scientific discovery, the linkages between research and practice are too often broken in education. The cost of that disconnect is huge — for teachers and even more so for students.

To help address the need for bringing evidence-based practices in the classroom, today CZI announced our support of $1 million over two years to the Center for Transformative Teaching & Learning (CTTL) to expand teacher access in the U.S. and worldwide to the online professional development tool Neuroteach Global.

Through the Neuroteach Global app, teachers and school leaders translate the latest evidence on how students learn into their own classroom practice, with the end goal of improving student outcomes.

“Teachers are eager for evidence-based practices they can use in their classrooms to support their students,” said Bror Saxberg, Vice President of Learning Science for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. “We are pleased to support the efforts of the Center for Transformative Teaching & Learning to develop a novel approach to online professional development that uses learning science principles both to design the training, and to provide the substance for how teachers can help their students.”

Educators using Neuroteach Global also receive individualized feedback from coaches on how they are integrating their learnings into their teaching.

“I am grateful for CZI’s belief in the possibility of using technology to deliver the science of learning to educators around the world,” said Glenn Whitman, Director of the CTTL and co-author of the book Neuroteach.. “Neuroteach Global now becomes the most innovative way to elevate a teacher or school leader’s current understanding of how the brain learns, works, and thrives regardless of geographic location and I am excited about what this could mean for schools, teachers, and most importantly students.”

About The Center for Transformative Teaching & Learning:
The CTTL is the only pre-collegiate school-based research center in the United States that designs and provides Mind, Brain and Education Science and research-informed professional development programming to public, charter and private schools as well as Teach For America (Washington, D.C., region). Since its founding in 2011, the CTTL has attracted foundation support from the Crimsonbridge Foundation, E.E. Ford Foundation, CityBridge Foundation, Windover Foundation, and the Discovery Learning Alliance among others. The CTTL has presented to, worked with, and trained more than 10,000 teachers at more than 200 schools in 20 states and five countries who work with more than 1,000,000 students. St. Andrew’s Episcopal School serves as the CTTL’s incubator for new programming, resources, and educational tools.

About the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative:
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, founded by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan in December 2015, is a new kind of philanthropic organization that brings together world-class engineering, grant-making, impact investing, policy, and advocacy work. Our initial areas of focus include supporting science through basic biomedical research and education through personalized learning. We are also exploring other issues tied to the promotion of equal opportunity including access to affordable housing and criminal justice reform.