The Teacher Potential Project
Last Revised: December 17, 2025
- Issue Areas
- K-12 education
- Outcomes
- Elementary and middle school success
Program overview
Combining high-quality English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum with professional development: The Teacher Potential Project (TPP), created by EL Education, is an online, Common Core State Standards-aligned ELA curriculum for grades 3 through 8. The curriculum is designed to prioritize student critical thinking and collaboration to build reading comprehension skills. Extensive professional development, including in person coaching and online workshops, accompany the curriculum to ensure teachers are implementing TPP with fidelity.
Prioritizing literacy and critical thinking skills: EL Education’s open-source ELA curriculum focuses on improving student learning outcomes as defined by Common Core. The curriculum includes literacy modules which are eight to nine weeks each and feature reading comprehension and writing exercises that build critical thinking skills. Classroom instruction focuses on guiding students to form their own conclusions and craft written arguments. The curriculum also includes opportunities for students to work together to help them learn from one another and practice explaining their thinking and interpretation of texts.
Embedding professional development to support ELA teachers: A central part of TPP is supporting teachers throughout the school year with a range of professional development opportunities. More intensive professional learning includes on-site workshops led by EL Education coaches and in-person “TPP institutes" offered four different times a year. Novice teachers (those with less than three years of full time teaching experience) are assigned TPP coaches who provide class observations, modeling, lesson studies, and in-person coaching.
- Strategies
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Literacy curricula and interventions
One study with rigorous design provides some evidence for The Teacher Potential Project (TPP) as a strategy for improving student achievement and instructor effectiveness in ELA.
- A 2019 randomized control trial including over 10,000 students in 18 school districts found that one year of TPP had statistically significant, positive impacts on treatment teachers’ overall ELA instructional practices. The study also found that student achievement improved with teachers who had two years of professional learning support.
Professional development throughout the year: TPP’s professional development offerings are intended to directly support implementation. Ongoing coaching and professional learning opportunities throughout the year ensure the support is aligned with the curriculum and focused on relevant instructional skills.
Prioritizing novice teachers for professional development: To ensure implementation fidelity with less experienced teachers, the TPP model prioritizes novice ELA teachers (those with less than three years of experience) for more intensive professional development, such as individualized in-person and virtual coaching, as well as specific online communities of practice.
Combining in-person and online support for teachers: Effective professional development should be flexible and easily accessible. To address this, TPP offers personalized coaching both in-person and online. TPP also includes in-person and online group learning opportunities such as on-site workshops and interactive webinars for teachers nationwide. Additional resources like model lesson plans and online communities of practice are available online for independent professional development.
Engaging leadership for effective implementation: To support high quality implementation, school and district leaders should establish a shared vision and build school-level capacity for TPP. School and district leadership support is essential to create a supportive culture for implementing new teaching methods and to ensure teachers are given time to dedicate to professional learning opportunities that are crucial to the TPP model.