National Professional Development Events

The AFT's Center for School Improvement Leadership Institute
The Center for School Improvement Leadership Institute is the AFT's premier professional development and technical assistance opportunity for strengthening collaboration skills with district and school improvement teams to improve student achievement. Teams attend this four-day national institute. In some cases, the AFT will host this professional development program on site for large teams of educators in locals or states. Topics include: Communication Strategies for Collaboration, Team Building, Using Data, and Professional Development.

AFT Professional Development Summer Educator Academy
This 10-day academy provides union-sponsored, research-based professional development that addresses the com­plexities of teaching. Offered in July, the program is designed to help local unions build the capacity to deliver high-quality professional development services to all educators—teach­ers, paraprofessionals and school-related personnel. Course offerings change from year to year, based on interest.

AFT Professional Development Network Conference (Pre-TEACH/Pre-Convention)
This annual conference provides an opportunity for state and local professional development facilitators, trainers, teacher leaders and local leaders to network with colleagues; update their research knowledge base; and learn about new policy directives to identify the research implications on their pro­fessional development offerings, delivery and outreach.

AFT Professional Development National Trainers Academy
The AFT National Trainers Academy serves as an inter­mediary to AFT's quality education agenda as it seeks to strengthen the institutions in which our members work. The professional development sessions offered at this academy are aimed at ensuring that national trainers are up to date on the most current education research. Once updated, they are better able to share the latest research developments with the adults they train. In short, the academy ensures that AFT trainers are fully prepared to support AFT affiliate profes­sional development programs—at the local, regional and state levels. In addition to providing training and technical assistance to their local affiliates, the national trainers are deployed nationwide to deliver courses and train facilitators on behalf of the AFT.

AFT TEACH Conference
The TEACH (Together Educating America's Children) Confer­ence is the AFT's signature professional development confer­ence that provides state-of-the-art presentations and ex­plores forward-looking education initiatives. The conference attracts more than 2,500 participants, including AFT mem­bers, state and district administrators, school board mem­bers and representatives of the higher education, business and social services communities nationwide. The TEACH Conference addresses current research and policy initiatives, features overviews of innovative work in education that edu­cators need to know about, offers exciting demonstrations of the latest educational technology, highlights thought-provok­ing keynote speakers, and much more.