ACTS in PA

The K-16 Aligning Curriculum To Standards in Pennsylvania Initiative aims to align curriculum to Pennsylvania’s academic standards as a strategy for enhancing the quality of teaching and learning in Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania Academy for the Profession of Teaching and Learning, part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, received its ACTS in PA grant from the PA Department of Education in 2003 to provide services for nearly 798 in-service, pre-service, and university faculty. The partners include 7 school districts, 24 institutions of higher education, and 4 intermediate units.

Goal: To provide innovative, high-quality educational opportunities for in-service and pre-service educators to increase K-12 student achievement.

Objective 1: current and prospective teachers across the state will align their instruction with Pennsylvania’s Mathematics and Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening Standards.

Objective 2: current and prospective teachers across the state will integrate technology effectively into their instructional strategies.

The K-16 council component of ACTS in PA will:  (1) enhance the quality of teacher preparation programs through partnerships of K-12 schools and institutions of higher education; (2) result in teacher preparation course revisions to align them with K-12 standards; (3) provide more opportunities for earlier and continuing placements of pre-service teachers in K-12 schools; (4) lead to joint appointments of K-12 and university educators; (5) result in future first-year teachers with strong content knowledge, understanding of the state’s academic standards, ability to align curriculum and instruction with the standards, and skills in integrating technology across the curriculum; (6) reform K-12 mathematics and reading curricula through highly focused professional development of in-service teachers in concert with university faculty and pre-service teachers; (7) increase the number of teachers who effectively integrate technology into curriculum and instruction in all curricular areas; and (8) lead to student mastery of the state’s academic standards.

Partners

Click here to view the ACTS in PA Partners organization chart.

Initatives

PA Professional Development School Planning Council

More Information

For more information, including a complete list of partners, calendar of events, and regular updates, visit the ACTS in PA website.