1996
The state of Florida created six Area Centers designed to provide professional development for educators on awareness of the state adopted Sunshine State Standards. The University of West Florida became the home of the Panhandle Area Center for Educational Enhancement.
1997
STEPS: The Lesson Architect™ is built and goes online to support Florida teachers with designing curriculum aligned to Florida's Sunshine State Standards.
1998
Taking advantage of new web developmnent technology, STEPS: The Lesson Architect™ is redesigned. The redesign includes the integration of live datasources, new functionality, and implementation of user accounts. The new redesign goes online in September. Teachers throughout Florida begin taking advantage of this online professional development resource.
1999
Additional functionality is added to STEPS: The Lesson Architect™ to support the lesson planning activities of Florida teachers. Over the past two years, more than 4,000 teachers in 35+ states create accounts and plan more than 7,400 lesson plans. The third redesign of STEPS: The Lesson Architect™ begins in an effort to respond to user feedback.
2000
STEPS: The Lesson Architect™ Version 3 goes online. Congress recognizes the value of STEPS: The Lesson Architect™ by designating a $1.85 million appropriation to repurpose the tool into a national teacher resource. The OEP straff begin the design of IBINDER.UWF.EDU website.
2001
IBINDER.UWF.EDU website goes online to support teachers across the nation with the effective integration of standards. The concepts for PLANright™, Essential Teaching Performances (ETPs), and MyBinder are formed. In the summer, National Board Certified teachers develop and refine the inital version of the ETPs, followed by an online survey to 300 National Board Certified teachers in 49 other states. PLANright™ is built and goes online to provide Florida teachers with a tool to assist them in the state's "Curriculum Validation" efforts. Congress provides another $900,000 for the continued development of IBINDER and its associated tools.
2002
MyBinder goes online providing IBINDER.UWF.EDU users access to collaboration tools like: schedules, messages, to-do lists, and more. The IBINDER.UWF.EDU website is recognized by the winter issure of the Harvard Family Research Project's FINE newsletter as "New and Noteworthy".
2003
The Institute for Innovative Community Learning begins searching for corporate partners to market the new commercial product iBINDER™. iBINDER™ is a streamlined version of the free teacher tools that have been available for more than five years. The teacher professional development book "Mapping Your Professional Journey: An Educator's Guide to Standards-Integrated Instruction" is nearing completion.
2004
The Escambia County ACP program continues to increase in participation, and Santa Rosa County Schools join the partnership. The class of 2004-05 increases to 83 participants.
2005
iBINDER is awarded a registered trademark.
The EPI (Educator Performance Institute) prepares for a five year internal review. The review is extremely successful with recommendations from the review team suggesting a name change to reflect the evolving focus of the Institute that is more inclusive of community educational needs. The team also recommends relocating the offices of the Institute to the downtown properties of the University of West Florida to fit the expanding mission of the Institute.
EPI becomes the Institute for Innovative Community Learning® (ICL) and relocates to offices in the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) on Chase Street in downtown historic Pensacola, and the ICL website also undergoes revisions and modifications.
TeacherReady™ is developed by the ICL staff. It is approved by the state of Florida in September as the only online Florida Educator Preparation Institute (EPI), and UWF is the only university with a state approved EPI. (An EPI is an alternative pathway to professional teacher certification. The first TeacherReady™ cohort is recruited and begins October.
ICL/UWF receives one of the first SUCCEED grants from the state of Florida, which allows ICL to fund scholarships for TeacherReady students.
ICL partners with the Escambia County School District to receive one of seven state grants for retaining early career teachers in high needs schools. ICL works with early career teachers in seven schools for a year and a half to develop a coaching model to support early career teachers.
2006
ICL hosts Ruby Payne for a one day event open to community members and educators.
ACP continues to grow in success and in number of participants. In January, Okaloosa County Schools join with UWF to offer ACP, and those participants complete in June. ICL provides ACP in Escambia, Okaloosa, and Santa Rosa School Districts with a total enrollment over 100.
TeacherReady™ enrollment continues to grow, and ICL/UWF receives a second SUCCEED grant to continue to fund scholarships for students.
2007
ICL hosts approximately 1,400 educators at the Pensacola Civic Center for a kick-off event for the new school year; Harry Wong presents at the event.
ICL relocates to 212 Church Street in the historic district of Pensacola, the original Parish School attached to Christ Church.
The first TeacherNotes™ , Aligning Instruction to Standards, Just Ask Andie! is published. TeacherNotes™ is a series of guidebooks much like Cliff’s Notes®. It is information on a hot educational topic that will assist teachers in the classroom. Along with this series, ICL develops LearnRightNow™, professional development that can accompany TeacherNotes™.
A major revision of ACP is completed to meet the needs of participants as expressed in student evaluations.
Seven TeacherReady™ cohorts are admitted. Enrollment continues to grow throughout the country and world. ICL receives the third SUCCEED grant and continues to offer scholarships to TeachrReady™ students.
ICL is one of five institutions asked to submit a proposal for an extension of the early career teacher grant for the 2007-2008 school year.
