Pacific Coast Teacher Innovation Network (PacTIN)

Beginning in 2009, the California Postsecondary Education Commission (now housed at the State Department of Education) provided funding to the School of Education to offer small teacher teams with small grants to design their own professional development.

Eventually, the Pacific Coast Teacher Innovation Network (PacTIN) supported 48 teams of three to five teachers along California’s Pacific Coast (representing 20 counties between Del Norte and Ventura Counties) over a two- to three-year period as they developed and implemented creative and innovative approaches to engaging and motivating students.

Recognizing that many outstanding teachers in California’s schools have creative and innovative ideas for enriching teaching and learning in their classrooms and schools, the goal of PacTIN was to provide classroom teachers with “seed monies” for making their ideas a reality. The program encouraged an entrepreneurial spirit by granting the teachers their own resources (up to $30,000 per team) and held them responsible for planning their own professional development and for translating new knowledge and skills into classroom practice and student learning in the classroom.

A team of educational partners, including the UC Davis School of Education CRESS Center, Humboldt Science and Mathematics Center, the School of Education at Humboldt State University, and Parajo Valley Unified School District, provide project leadership.