The ACCELA Alliance professional development programis unlike other programs in a number of ways. First, the theoretical perspective informing the work of ACCELA is grounded in a critical, praxis-oriented understanding of teaching, learning, assessment, and school change (see ACCELA Research). This perspective highlights the necessity for educators to draw on students’ linguistic and cultural resources in designing curriculum and instruction, reflecting on assessment practices, and developing students’ abilities to use school-based literacy practices to accomplish academic, social, and political work that matters to them and the communities to which they belong.

Second, all ACCELA courses are offered on-site within local schools and community organizations. These courses are organized in part around participants’ emerging and evolving research questions about their work in their community and/or student learning in their classrooms.

Third, the activities of the ACCELA Alliance are data-driven. Specifically, participants are supported in conducting inquiry projects by UMass faculty and doctoral students, who assist them with developing research questions responsive to local issues, collecting and analyzing various kinds of qualitative and quantitative data, and creating action plans for future work. Data sources include scholarly literature, interviews with community members, surveys, digital video of teaching and learning practices, transcriptions of classroom interactions, samples of students’ work, and classroom, district, and state assessment data.

Last, members of the ACCELA Alliance regularly present their analyses of various kinds of data to their colleagues, principals, and other stakeholders as part of their ACCELA course work and their participation in regional and national conferences. These presentations allow participants to reflect on the implications of their work for student learning and to build on their collective efforts to act as change-agents (see ACCELA Research).