Leadership Grants

CSTP awards small grants to National Board Certified Teachers so they can lead high-quality professional development in their schools and districts. This practice has proven to be extremely effective with NBCTs, allowing them the opportunity to bring precious professional development dollars into their settings, and to exercise their leadership in a way that makes local impact and involves colleagues with professional development strategies that make positive impacts on student learning. It also allows leaders to personalize professional development to the needs of their students. In situations where the entire school is involved with the learning opportunity funded by the grant, common language, common vision and new appreciation for the expertise of colleagues can also result.

2010 NBCT Leadership Grants:  

In 2010, thirty grants were awarded in two cycles. NBCTs who won these competitive grants identified and addressed a local student learning challenge and provided a plan to build teacher capacity to meet that challenge. NBCTs and their learning colleagues (NBCTs and/or other accomplished teachers) are from the same school or across schools in the same district if addressing a common need.  Grant funds pay for stipends, hourly curriculum pay, substitute teachers, books, and/or materials necessary for professional development. Grant funds will not be used to pay for equipment, travel, outside consultants, student materials or overhead fee/charges.  

Successful grant applications focused on one or more of the following priority areas:

• High Needs Schools - improving learning in our most challenging schools
• Take One! projects  - NBPTS professional development opportunity
• Closing the Achievement Gap - addressing the students who need us most
• Mentoring and Induction - support for teachers in their first five years
• Building-Wide Leadership  - strengthening leadership knowledge and skills

See Summaries of the 2010 grants here:

• First Round for 2010 Grant Summary and Final Report 
• Second Round for 2010 Grant Summary

Other useful resources:

• Summaries of what other NBCTs have done with Leadership Grants check out CSTP's publication Small Investments, Big Returns.
• National Staff Development Council's definition of effective professional development.
• CSTP's Teacher Leadership Skills Framework

Here's what past NBCT Leadership Grant recipients had to say:

From an elementary school staff member engaged in perfecting mathematics lessons:  "It is amazing. It's not just studying one little lesson. The best part of it is sitting down together and sharing what we are doing with kids and how we do it. The synergy is one of the best things I've seen and I've been teaching since '85."

And from a teacher provided time to observe in colleagues' classrooms: "Everyone is now wanting more opportunity to be in other teachers' classrooms ... because you can talk all you like about curriculum and management, but it is a whole other ball game to see it in action."

A brief description of grants awarded in the past:

2007-2008       

2004-2005     

2003-2004

CSTP Leadership Grants 2003 ‐ 2008 Project Analysis and Recommendations

Small investments, big returns - Increasing the effectiveness of professional development