About the Center for Technology & School Change

The Center for Technology and School Change (CTSC) was founded in 1998 at Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York City. Over the past several years, CTSC staff members have worked with dozens of schools, and hundreds of educators. The mission of CTSC is to:

• train teachers how to integrate technology successfully into P-12 schools;
• research student, teacher, and administrative uses of technology in schools to increase learning;
• develop creative classroom applications for technology tools and products; and
• help teachers in urban schools address the unique inner-city challenges related to teaching and learning with technology.

To further its work, CTSC often engages in partnerships with other institutions, programs, and projects. The purpose of the partnerships is to provide services and to investigate the ways that schools can more easily and productively integrate technology into their education practices. Examples of CTSC partnerships include:

Teacher/Leader Quality Partnerships

This grant seeks to enhance collaboration among undergraduate arts and sciences, preservice education, and P-12 schools. The Bank Street College of Education and the School of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University, are collaborating with CTSC on this project.

Title II-D Competitive and Title-IID Non-Competitive

Numerous schools partner with CTSC to provide professional development in the grants that they receive. For these schools, CTSC conducts school-based workshops which train teachers to infuse technology into their practice. Learning Technology grants, Title IID Competitive, Title IID Noncompetitive, and Non-Public School Consortium grants are examples of such CTSC-school relationships.

Mathematics for All

CTSC also has a grant to serve as the Evaluator for the Mathematics for All grant awarded by the National Science Foundation to Bank Street College and the Education Development Center. This grant helps teachers develop inclusion skills in the area of mathematics through the use of video case-based studies.

New York Preparing Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) Catalyst Grant

The New York PT3 Catalyst grant is a partnership with two other universities--the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, and Syracuse University. PT3 has produced a comprehensive print and web-based resource packet. The packet presents a theoretical and functional framework to help leaders in teacher education programs plan for the effective integration of instructional technologies.

Teachers College PT3 Implementation Grant

The purpose of the Teachers College Preparing Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) Implementation grant is to enhance the technology capacity at the College by providing assistance to its preservice teacher faculty who are interested in integrating technology into the curriculum.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and The Sage Colleges

CTSC has collaborated with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and The Sage Colleges (Russell Sage College, Sage College of Albany, and Sage Graduate School) to conduct research on mentoring strategies for working with teachers who are integrating technology into their classroom practice.

Intensive Masters Program

CTSC helps administer Teachers College's Intensive Program in Computing and Education ( link to TC program home page ). Since 1974, the program has been conferring a master's degree in Computing and Education. The program emphasizes intensive work at Teachers College in the summer followed by on- or off-site coursework during the school year.