Typically, professional development has been done by sending teachers off to workshops and classes, but the flaw in that plan is that even if the teacher is transformed in the process, he or she returns to an unchanged school and soon becomes frustrated and discouraged. We thought it made sense to create an ongoing program in a single school, one that crossed departmental lines. When the teachers decided to continue on their own this fall, they opened the program up to any interested teacher in the school. About 15 are participating, half of whom were in the group that Grossman and Wineburg led. What they do from here on is up to them, but Grossman is convinced they're onto something.
School reforms come and go, but the success of any reform depends on teachers themselves.