What We Do

The Eagle Rock Professional Development Center works with Changemakers (educators & students) committed to preparing the  next generation of leaders to break down unjust systems.  We empower and support educators & students to become catalysts of change (in their lives and communities).  We're interested in working with Changemakers who embrace the power of diversity and are boldly committed to charting a new path, together.

That’s because we envision this country’s high schools as high functioning centers of engagement and learning. Through our unique services and offerings we strive to accelerate school improvement and support implementation of engaging practices that foster each students’ unique potential and help young people use their minds well.

Initiatives of the Professional Development Center include:

• Facilitating our National Changemaker Cohort

• Hosting visiting Changemakers (educators) from around the country at our 640-acre mountainside campus adjacent to Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colorado

• Facilitating school innovation nationally in local contexts

• Administering our Teacher Licensure Program, in collaboration with the Colorado Department of Education

• Facilitating our Fellowship Program

• Hosting educators at our student Presentations of Learning (Exhibitions)

• Offering a variety of learning opportunities to pre-student teachers, student teachers, graduate students and researchers.

• Publishing articles in educational journals, as well as in leading consumer dailies such as The New York Times, and trade resources like Phi Delta Kappan

• Publishing books about Eagle Rock (e.g., The Other Side of the Curriculum: Lessons For Learners and Engaging the Disengaged – How Schools Can Help Struggling Students Succeed), as well as chapters in books (e.g., 2014 National Society for the Study of Education (NSSE) Yearbook — Engaging Youth in Schools: Empirically-Based Models to Guide Future Innovations).

The Professional Development staffers here at Eagle Rock are organizational school change consultants. They've worked with schools and school districts and youth service organizations across the United States for over 30 years to help those entities create healthy, high-functioning learning environments with the aim of preparing the next generation of leaders to breakdown unjust systems by empowering students to become catalysts of change (in their lives and communities).