SPI meaning in Academic & Science ?

The Student Press Initiative (SPI) at Teachers College, Columbia University, is a professional development program for teachers, which uses publication as a tool to teach literacy skills. Publication, or "Going Public," entails everything from publishing professionally bound books of student writing and organizing community-based panel discussions to developing downloadable MP3s and staging theatrical performances. This not-for-profit educational organization partners with schools to transform classrooms into mini-publishing houses that celebrate student voice, activism and achievement. Founded in 2002, SPI provides intensive consultation and curriculum planning resources to classroom teachers in its partner schools, and publishes the culminating student-authored projects.

According to the organization’s website, SPI has partnered with over 60 schools over the past seven years. The goal of the partnerships is to link Teachers College resources with classrooms across the nation. Through these partnerships, SPI provides teachers with the tools and support they need to create projects that culminate in the publication of student-written books and teacher-written curriculum guides. SPI has published student-authored texts written across the disciplines, including math, science, English language Arts, ELL and bilingual studies. Over the years, the organization has hosted public performances of student work at various community venues, including Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores, the Samsung Experience at the Time Warner Center in Manhattan, and the Rikers Island Correctional Facility. In 2008, SPI partner teachers received one of four Tribute WTC Visitor Center Annual Teacher Awards for the book Yesterday’s Issues, Today’s Perspectives, Tomorrow’s Lessons written by students from the Academy for Young Writers.