Since 1995, SIP has been implemented in Boston, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Broward County, Florida and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Lancaster School District, Lancaster PA, a largely Hispanic inner-city district. It was found to be effective professional development. Whether we train the principals along with the coaches or separately, we insist on their being trained. If principals do not go through the process, they will not understand its demands - and they will not be able to reinforce its peculiar strength in aligning classroom work with standards.
Training lasts two days.
Education Trust staff usually work in pairs, with groups ranging from 25 through 60. Larger than this becomes unproductive. This can take as much as six hours, the length of a professional development day. On the second day, teachers bring in assignments and sets of student work from their classes, just as they will in the team meetings. They go through the process with their own assignments, each taking the role of coach or team leader for one step.