PUBLIC LAW 103-382—OCT. 20, 1994
108 STAT. 3613
"(A) professional development must be focused on
teaching and learning in order to improve the opportunities
of all students to achieve higher standards;
"(B) effective professional development focuses on discipline-based knowledge and effective subject-specific pedagogical skills, involves teams of teachers, and, where appropriate, administrators and pupil services personnel, in a
school and, through professional networks of teachers, and,
where appropriate, teacher educators, administrators, pupil
services personnel, and parents, is interactive and collaborative, motivates by its intrinsic content and relationship
to practice, builds on experience and learning-by-doing,
and becomes incorporated into the everyday life of the
school;
"(C) professional development can dramatically
improve classroom instruction and learning when teachers,
and, where appropriate, administrators, pupil services
personnel, and parents, are partners in the development
and implementation of such professional development; and
"(D) new and innovative strategies for teaching to high
standards will require time for teachers, outside of the
time spent teaching, for instruction, practice, and coUegial
collaboration.
"(5) Special attention must be given in professional development activities to ensure that education professionals are
knowledgeable of, and make use of, strategies for serving populations that historically have lacked access to equal opportunities for advanced learning and career advancement.
"(6) Professional development is often a victim of budget
reductions in fiscally difficult times.
"(7) The Federal Government has a vital role in helping
States and local educational agencies to make sustained and
intensive high-quality professional development in the core academic subjects become an integral part of the elementary and
secondary education system.
"(8) Professional development activities must prepare
teachers, pupil services personnel, paraprofessionals and other
staff in the collaborative skills needed to appropriately teach
children with disabilities, in the core academic subjects.
"(9) Parental involvement is an important aspect of school
reform and improvement. There is a need for special attention
to ensure the effective involvement of parents in the education
of their children. Professional development should include
methods and strategies to better prepare teachers and, where
appropriate, administrators, to enable parents to participate
fully and effectively in their children's education.
" SEC. 2002. PURPOSES.
20 USC 6602.
'The purposes of this title are to provide assistance to State
and local educational agencies and to institutions of higher education with teacher education programs so that such agencies and
institutions can determine how best to improve the teaching and
learning of all students by—
"(1) helping to ensure that teachers, and, where appropriate, other staff and administrators, have access to sustained
and intensive high-quality professional development that is
aligned to challenging State content standards and challenging
�
