Nearly 100 representatives from 20 institutions will serve as the leadership group in CIC’s new Teachers for the 21st Century program, developed in partnership with the Microsoft Corporation. CIC selected the institutions (see box) in February. This program will initiate a national faculty development network for college and university professors responsible for teacher preparation programs. Each institution is represented by a four- or five-person faculty team. Of the participating faculty members, half are in departments of education and the rest are in a broad range of arts and sciences disciplines that prepare future K–12 teachers.

This faculty development community will utilize two programmatic elements. The first is collections of instructional materials and other resources for different subjects and grade levels. The leadership teams will contribute best practice materials from their own experiences and identify other materials from the worldwide network being created by the larger Microsoft Partners in Learning effort and other sources (see Winter/Spring 2006 Independent for more information about the Microsoft initiative). A second element will be the establishment of a rich and cost-effective set of communication mechanisms—annual in-person meetings, monthly web-based seminars, and online communications. Initial activities include a webinar that took place in May and a June 2006 meeting at a Microsoft conference center in Reston, Virginia.