Teachers and principals will once again have the opportunity to learn from their peers' success in raising student achievement by attending one of six regional workshops, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced today.

"We want to build on the phenomenal success of last year's workshops and give more teachers an opportunity to learn firsthand from those who have put these practices to work in the classroom," Secretary Spellings said. "It's one thing to read about a successful strategy; it's quite another to engage directly with the educators who have had impressive results in closing the achievement gap."

The summer workshops are part of the Department's ongoing Teacher-to-Teacher initiative, which is designed to support teachers and keep them informed of the latest strategies and research that help students learn to high standards. This year's workshops will be held: June 20-22 in Cincinnati; June 27-29 in Phoenix; July 11-13 in Minneapolis; July 18-20 in Tampa, Fla.; July 25-27 in Bethesda, Md.; and Aug. 1-3 in San Jose, Calif.

The workshop topics will be evenly distributed among elementary and secondary instruction, with breakout sessions on literacy and reading, mathematics, science and social studies. Additional sessions will be held on the No Child Left Behind Act, special education, English-language learning, school leadership, testing, using data effectively and federal grant writing, among others.

Another key feature of the Teacher-to-Teacher initiative is the e-Learning program, which provides teachers with free, on-line professional development training courses in a variety of subject areas. Twenty-nine states currently accept course completion as credit for their teachers, and other states are expected to accept the courses for credit in the coming months.

"Traditional classroom instruction may not be practical for teachers from rural areas or those with busy schedules," Secretary Spellings said. "That's why e-Learning was created -- to give teachers access to high quality, in-depth learning to stay up-to-speed on the latest teaching strategies and, at the same time, get the credit they need to maintain their teaching credentials."

The Teacher-to-Teacher initiative also includes roundtable discussions with teachers about the support they need to meet the academic needs of their students, the American Stars of Teaching recognition project and electronic "e-byte" updates to provide useful information to teachers.

The No Child Left Behind Act is the bipartisan landmark education reform law designed to change the culture of America's schools by closing the achievement gap among groups of students, offering more flexibility to states, giving parents more options and teaching students based on what works. Under the law's strong accountability provisions, states must describe how they will close the achievement gap and make sure all students, including those with disabilities, achieve academically.

Information about registering for the workshops and other aspects of the Teacher-to-Teacher initiative is available at www.ed.gov/teacherinitiative.

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