CCT recently collaborated with the Council for Basic Education to design and implement Schools Around the World (SAW), a multinational, systemic professional development model that uses world-class standards as the basis for improving student achievement.

SAW's approach is unique in that it relies heavily on web-based technology to provide teachers direct access to one another's work. SAW builds on the important work of the third International Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS) giving teachers the singular opportunity to go beyond the TIMSS results and to learn what is expected, taught, and achieved in other countries.

SAW makes teachers active participants in the project of addressing the critical issues of teacher quality and professional growth. It is a professional development opportunity that:

• Is long-term;
• Is grounded in curriculum and student work;
• Aims to change teaching practice and raise student achievement;
• Develops teacher expertise in subject matter and the uses of technology as a learning tool;
• Creates a unique framework for teachers to establish and maintain peer networks;
• Becomes self-sustaining and easy to replicate after the life of the project.

CCT developed a working web-based prototype that demonstrates how SAW teachers are able to share student work and the classroom conditions in which it was created. These student cases are used in facilitated online teacher-to-teacher exchanges that promote self-examination, collegial review, and reflection as well as the heightening of expectations among participating teachers. The samples are real student work contributed by teachers who have been going through the SAW process with their fellow teachers at a local level. The full version has many more student cases contributed by each of the participating countries. The website and all of the material associated with each case will be translated into the languages of participating countries.