The U.S. Department of Education (ED) on Oct. 5 unveiled a new professional development web site for teachers and administrators. Its architects hope the free resource--built by teachers for teachers--will encourage the use of proven classroom strategies and provide more effective ways of using data to improve instruction in the nation's schools.

An extension of ED's $3 million Teacher-to-Teacher (T2T) initiative, the new site is the culmination of more than 12 workshops and hours of educator-led discussions and roundtable sessions about how best to improve teacher training in accordance with the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

Carloyn Snowbarger, director of ED's T2T initiative, said the goal is to give all schools, especially those without money for expensive in-service training courses, an opportunity to raise the bar for teacher performance.

"Many of the online professional development services that are out there are fairly costly," Snowbarger said. "This is a free service." Teachers can log on from any school anywhere in the country and participate, she explained, regardless of how much money their district has set aside for professional development.

Snowbarger, who spent 28 years as a classroom teacher before joining the department, said the need for free online professional development is especially acute in the nation's most remote and rural schools, where many teachers don't have experts they can turn to for additional training and guidance.

At the crux of the program is a selection of pre-recorded video sessions proctored by experienced classroom educators. The sessions, taped and converted to video-streaming format as part of ED's summer and fall workshop program, feature training in reading and language-arts instruction, science and math instruction, data-driven decision making, and NCLB compliance.

Teachers who sign up for the free service will have access to lessons on topics ranging from building students' vocabulary to using technology to enhance algebra instruction and turning data into improved test scores.

Each T2T course includes a brief overview; a list of course components; a video note-taking guide; the video itself; a course assessment to be filled out by the educator; a list of suggested follow-up activities; course handouts for classroom use; a principal's implementation checklist; a feedback form for school professional development coordinators; and additional resources, including links to related web sites, as well as a listing of journal articles and books intended to help teachers and students delve even deeper into the topics covered by the video courses.

To ensure that educators can complete each course at their own pace, the video segments are split into 30-minute chunks. Snowbarger said she wanted educators to be able to choose when and where they participate in the program--whether it's after school with their peers or from home on their own time.