Professional Development Curricula

NAPE offers a variety of options for educator professional development including year-long academies, full-day and half-day workshops, online learning modules, and keynote speeches.

NAPE Professional Development Curricula include:

Micromessaging: Leading for Equity

Educators want their students to succeed. School mission statements show commitment to equity. Yet, gaps persist. Leading for Equity addresses the critical ways in which an equity perspective reveals changes necessary for student success.  We bring equity to the forefront of leaders’ work as we begin to: understand how unconscious bias is embedded in our educational systems; increase awareness of the messages we are sending through systems, policies and procedures, community engagement, supervision and classroom interactions; and realize the scope of change necessary to ensure we serve every student well. 

Micromessaging to Reach and Teach Every Student™ ^

The NAPE Education Foundation has developed Micromessaging to Reach and Teach Every Student™—a high-quality, research-based, educator professional development program to address gender- and culturally based implicit biases that occur in the classroom and that are manifested through “micromessages.” This unique program provides participants with an awareness of the power of micromessages, which include looks, gestures, tone of voice, or the framing of feedback that subtly yet powerfully shape our culture, our classrooms, and the individuals within them. 

Program Improvement Process for Equity™ (PIPE™) ^​

NAPE understands that engaging leadership is essential for successful and lasting INSTITUTIONAL change. NAPE and its partners use a five-step Program Improvement Process for Equity™ (PIPE; formerly the Five-Step Improvement Process) that is based on practical yet rigorous methods and tools to guide state and local efforts to improve access, equity, and diversity in nontraditional occupations and STEM fields.

Realizing Potential with Mindset * ^​

Realizing Potential with Mindset is designed to assist educators in transforming their practice to foster a growth mindset in themselves, and in their students. Using a growth-mindset approach in teaching is especially effective in developing equitable learning environments that support every student. This course provides an overview of growth mindset, including key characteristics, benefits, and strategies to employ in the classroom.

Explore STEM Careers * ^​

NAPE’s Explore STEM Careers provides a framework with lesson plans and activities to help counselors, teachers, and administrators to educate and inspire every student to consider a career in STEM. Most “careers of tomorrow” have a STEM/STEAM component, yet too few of our students think STEM is for them. This interactive session is designed to empower educators with effective messaging to communicate to a diverse group of students the breadth of opportunities and pathways in STEM careers and to introduce tools for students to explore STEM-related careers. 

Explore Nontraditional Careers *​

This course provides a research-grounded process to assist educators in transforming their practice to increase the participation and persistence of students in nontraditional occupational programs and pathways. Through a process of examination, reflection, and action, the activities in this toolkit prepare educators to reach, teach, and maximize the success of every student. Stereotypes often impact students’ self-efficacy and ultimately their career choices. Participants explore effective messages and their impact on students’ self-efficacy, behavior and career choices. They examine a wide range of career opportunities and strategies that help educators effectively communicate opportunities to their students with a focus on high-skill, high wage opportunities in CTE/STEM. 

Ensuring Equity in Project Based Learning *

The Ensuring Equity in Problem-Based Learning Toolkit assists educators in transforming their Problem- or Project-Based Learning (PBL) practices to ensure every student can be successful. To effectively engage each student, we provide an original framework and a reflection tool to embed equity in PBL. We address key components of PBL, describe how an equitable PBL approach can positively affect marginalized groups, and provide strategies for educators to make PBL practices more equitable, specifically within STEM and CTE.  

Inspiring Courage to Excel through Self-Efficacy * ^

The Inspiring Courage to Excel through Self-Efficacy Toolkit will help educators and counselors learn key tenets of self-efficacy, as well as research-based strategies that can increase their students’ self-efficacy, positively affecting academic achievement, advancement, and resilience. Those who maintain a high degree of self-efficacy are more agreeable to trying new tasks and persisting when tackling difficult problems; and they exhibit greater interest, motivation, and engagement. Self-efficacy has a lot to do with a student’s learning and choice of courses and careers. Educators learn four key components of self-efficacy and a coachable model for helping students build their own self-efficacy. 

Eliminating Barriers through Culturally Responsive Teaching

This toolkit is intended to help educators develop mindsets to meet the needs of their students, and to implement curriculum that utilizes students’ cultural perspectives and home or community knowledge.  Culturally responsive teaching is when educators relate content and instructional strategies to the cultural backgrounds of their students. Through a process of examination, reflection, and action, educators investigate their own experiences with Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP) and develop a unique CRP reflection tool customized to their specific context for use in evaluating practices. 

Professional Learning Communities for Educational Equity *​

Equipping Campus Educational Equity Coaches​

* NAPE’s series of turnkey implementation toolkits provides research-grounded strategies and processes designed to equip educators with new tools to reach, teach, and guide every student to realize their potential.

Online Learning Modules available on NAPE’s Learning Management System. 

*** NAPE has adopted Learning Forward’s Standards for Professional Learning so that our work in supporting professional learning leads to effective teaching practices, supportive leadership, and improved student results. Learn more about Learning Forward’s Standards for Professional Learning at www.learningforward.org/standards-for-professional-learning.

The National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity offers research-based, strategy-driven, practical-application-focused professional development services that equip educators with tools to address specific school needs related to equitable learning environments, student academic success and ultimately, college and career readiness.