9453923 Stafford The Wisconsin Staff Development Initiative (WSDI) is a 5-year project to effect comprehensive S/M/T reform through a program of systematic, coordinated and continuous staff development activities. Each year Lead Teacher Institutes (LTI) will prepare 60 teachers in grades K-12 to be change agents in their schools and to staff the Summer Academy, modeled after the CRAY Academy, at six sites around the state of Wisconsin. Several teams from nearest neighbor states will pilot dissemination beyond Wisconsin in a phased approach to national implementation. The LTIs consist of two 4-week sessions in each of two consecutive summers. Teacher Enhancement activities include: Participation in 2-weeks of the CRAY Academy, one week preparing to lead a Summer Academy and two weeks of teaching in a Summer Academy with the aid of a mentor. In the Summer Academy teachers pick a single topic, from 40 or more S/M/T topics for each week of participation. Topics include Operation Physics topics, Graphing Calculators, Fast Plants, etc. Over a three or four year period teachers participate in 3-4 such sessions. Participation in these Summer Academies usually includes school teams as well as principals. Each academy has a core series of workshops plus others which reflect local needs. Teachers earn one-graduate credit for each Summer Academy they complete. The LTIs are held in Chippewa Falls, WI the original CRAY Academy site. New sites will be phased in as follows: Madison, LaCrosse, Fennimore, Green Bay in 1994, Milwaukee in 1995, Racine & Hayward in 1996, Rhinelander in 1997, Beloit and Stevens Point in 1998 and Fond du Lac in 1999. The project will use the existing educational infrastructure to deliver services to teachers and effect comprehensive change in local districts.
