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Equip teachers to provide value beyond school
In spite of numerous reforms to improve rigor and relevance in the classroom, our schools have been slow to change. Backed by over 20 years of research, the Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW) framework helps school-based teams improve the quality of instruction, assessment, and curriculum for higher and more equitable student learning. This work provides

• A research-validated, field-tested framework that can be applied across grades and disciplines
• A powerful professional learning component that emphasizes teacher collaboration
• Detailed examples of lessons, assignments, assessment tasks, and student work

Dr. Fred M. Newmann, Emeritus Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison, began his education career teaching high school history and social studies in 1959. Dissatisfied with prevailing curriculum and instruction, he completed doctoral studies at Harvard and began to attack the broader question: In what ways can institutions, especially schools, in a modern culture be shaped to enhance community?

This led to research and development of social studies and civic education curriculum, to planning an alternative school, to studies of alienation in secondary schools, theories of democratic citizenship, student community service, higher order thinking in high school curriculum, new approaches to student assessment, the restructuring of public, elementary, middle, and high schools, and professional development to build capacity in low-income schools.

At Wisconsin, he taught graduate courses in curriculum and assessment and directed national centers on Effective Secondary Schools and on Organization and Restructuring of Schools (k-12) which generated the initial research on Authentic Intellectual Work that was used in research on Chicago Public School reform. He has published widely and is recognized internationally as a leader in reform of curriculum, instruction and schooling. He retired from the University of Wisconsin in 2001, and since 2007 helped develop the approach to professional development sponsored by the Center for Authentic Intellectual Work.

Dr. Dana L. Carmichael began her teaching career in Japan. After five years, she joined Minneapolis Public Schools as a social studies teacher. In 1995, Dana earned a Fulbright Scholarship, to write authentic curriculum in Namibia on how education promotes democracy in new nations. Her international background, which included living in Chile, Spain and Austria as a child, led her to pursue a PhD in Comparative International Development in Education Studies in the Department of Policy and Administration at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, which she completed in 2003.

Ultimately her passion for teaching urban students kept her in the Twin Cities. She first learned about Dr. Newmann's work in the Mid-1990's while serving as the K-12 District Social Studies Curriculum Specialist. She and Dr. Patricia Avery (University of Minnesota) collaborated on a number of early AIW projects. Her experiences directing these projects, including a Minnesota Best Practices grant (2000) and Federal Teaching American History (2001-2004), combined with additional experiences, including Director of NCLB, Staff Development Director, and Learning Forward academy graduate (2007), prepared her to accept Newmann's invitation to join him and Dr. King on the Iowa-AIW project. Since 2008, she has served as Executive Director of the Center for Authentic Intellectual, based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she lives with her husband and two children. For more information about how the Center and supports educators learn to sustain transformational reform by promoting academic rigor through teacher reflection, visit the Center website at www.centerforaiw.com