ABSTRACT
Teacher training, education, and professional development are paramount as educators acknowledge the monumental challenges that face classroom teachers in a large urban school district. Our teachers must be skilled and tooled to make ongoing literacy decisions, adjust instruction to meet the needs of all students, have a cognitive foundation in reading and writing, and utilize pedagogical techniques to be effective implementers. With this premise in mind, the Reading Academy evolved as the major training component of the systemic Dallas Reading Plan. My responsibility in this chapter is not to review the literature on staff development models, but to reflect and give my perspective on this innovative initiative of which I have been a part since its inception in the fall of 1996.
