National Teacher Policy Institute

In 1996, IMPACT II launched a national effort to provide teachers with the opportunity to develop the knowledge and skills to influence policy locally, statewide, and nationally.  The institute offered teachers across the country a forum for creating policy recommendations to affect the most critical  concern of the profession--the quality of professionals entering and remaining in teaching.     

Teams of teachers from IMPACT II sites in Santa Barbara County, Los Angeles, Chicago, the State of Illinois, Boston, and New York City participated in teams as MetLife Fellows in a year-long institute.  Ann Lieberman, co-director of the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching (NCREST) and advisor to this project, recommended readings for the institute and was the featured speaker at the institute's kick-off teleconference.     

The National Teacher Policy Institute supported online discussions of policy issues in public education.  A web-based bulletin board and other Internet communications facilitated teacher discourse, project sharing, and remote collaboration.  Assistance in online communication and collaboration was available to NTPI teachers.  

IMPACT II's Teachers Guide To Cyberspace, sent to all fellows, helped teachers learn to connect and communicate via the Internet.    Additional online guidance was available from LiveText, a K-12 support website, including pages on Online Communication, Distance Education, School Reform Policy, and Technical Support.

Staff included Ellen Meyers, Program Director; Sanda Balaban, Program Coordinator; and  Bram Moreinis, Technology Coordinator. The attached survey analysis indicates how remote collaboration technologies served this national community in the dawn of the Internet age.