Changing Classroom Practice: The Evaluation of the School Network Learning Project in Jordan

In 2007, the Columbia University Middle East Research Center (CUMERC), with the support and patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, facilitated the founding of the Queen Rania Teacher Academy (QRTA) to help advance education in Jordan and throughout the Middle East. Through CUMERC, QRTA and Teachers College, Columbia University (TC) formed a new partnership whose goal was to use high quality in-service training to improve the quality of the public schools in Jordan. The Consortium for Policy in Education at TC (CPRE) took on this work and began collaborating with QRTA to engage current educators in the adoption and use of evidence-based instructional practices in Jordan’s elementary and secondary schools. This initiative became known as the School Networks Learning Project and supported networks of schools in different regions of the country as vehicles for providing professional development of teachers in English, mathematics, and science as well as leadership training for principals and education supervisors to support the desired changes in classroom practice. Five core practices were emphasized during the professional development with the goal being that teachers would focus on these practices and take them back to their classrooms. Schools and teachers made a 2 to 3 year commitment to the project. At the time of the writing of this report, three cohorts have completed the Project and two additional cohorts have begun the Project. Across the three completed cohorts, 2,158 teachers, 894 school leaders, and 104 other educators participated in the School Network Project, totaling 3,130 participants over the almost six years of the Project’s implementation.