CIE was awarded a $1 million sub-contract from AMIDEAST, with USAID West Bank & Gaza funding, to help with the reform of teacher education in the West Bank and Gaza. The project, Leadership and Teacher Development, is a comprehensive education reform initiative that supports the Ministry of Education's national effort in teacher development. The overall goal is to improve the quality of education through a comprehensive approach to leadership and teacher development, concentrating on in-service teachers in grades 5-10, principals, and supervisors, and the macro policy context.  The four major objectives of LTD are:

• To enhance the capacity of school principals, supervisors and teachers to improve classroom instruction;
• To create a national cadre of high-quality teacher and leadership educators;
• To create and harmonize policies, structures and systems within key Ministry of Education departments supporting leadership and teacher development;
• To enhance pre-service teacher education in Gaza.

CIE is responsible  for implementing four components: the Teacher Education Enhancement Program, Teacher Performance Assessment System, Study Tours for Leadership & Supervision, and Enhancing Pre-Service Education in Gaza.  Gretchen Rossman is the Principal Investigator(PI) or this project; Co-PIs are Sharon Rallis and Joe Berger. The team will visit Palestine several times to deliver workshops to teacher educators and to collaborate with Ministry officials in improving formative teacher performance assessments.