Fordham now leads a statewide professional development center aimed at helping teachers at 1,800+ independent and religious schools in New York provide the best possible education to their students.
The Graduate School of Education (GSE) received a two-year, $1.5 million grant from the State of New York this past fall to assume responsibility for the New York State Professional Development Resource Center.
GSE’s Center for Educational Partnerships is administering the statewide grant. It had previously overseen professional development for religious and independent schools only in New York City, with two other organizations covering the rest of the state. The new grant expanded Fordham’s responsibility to cover the whole state of New York.
Professional Development in Technology, Socio-Emotional Learning, and More
The grant enables the center to provide events free of charge and hire consultants to work with school staff. The center offers a minimum of 24 webinars, in-person sessions, and six mini-conferences annually to the schools’ staff members. Staff also visit schools around the state to provide in-person workshops and conferences and meet with school leaders to ascertain their needs.
Stefanie Reda, the resource center’s director, said professional development in areas such as executive functioning, technology, and differentiation is always in demand.
In addition, “social-emotional learning is always at the forefront, as is supporting best practices for teachers,” she said.
Center staff works closely with Gerald Cattaro, Ed.D., and Fordham’s Center for Catholic School Leadership and Faith-Based Education to stay abreast of the issues and concerns that are unique to independent and religious schools.
One of its first responsibilities upon receiving the grant was to oversee the RISE conference, a two-day gathering of panel sessions and discussions that took place in Albany in November. The conference featured panels such as “Enhancing Communications between Home and School” and “Empowering Families to Support Student Growth.”
“We are excited to be offering administrators, teachers, and the entire school community of Religious and Independent schools access to the many benefits of the Professional Development Resource Center’s in-person and virtual professional development learning opportunities,” said Anita Batisti, Ph.D., associate dean and founder of the Center for Educational Partnerships.
Reda, who served as a teacher for 20 years, is also familiar with the issues personally, having worked with a small staff at a Catholic school in Westchester County.
“ I was the only science teacher in the building, so the only time I was able to collaborate and get different ideas and share what works and what doesn’t work was at these professional development sessions,” Reda said.
“I know how important it is to have these sessions because that’s the time when collaboration and planning really happen. We look forward to implementing these much needed services to religious and independent schools statewide.”
