In order to provide the highest quality of research informed teaching at St. Andrew’s, the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning was created in 2011 as an outgrowth of the St. Andrew’s mission to “Know and inspire each student in an inclusive community dedicated to exceptional teaching, learning, and service.”

The CTTL’s priority is to ensure that 100% of St. Andrew’s Pre-school through 12th grade teachers receive training and ongoing professional development (every school year) in Mind, Brain, and Education Science, the most innovative thinking being applied to enhancing teacher quality and student achievement today.

In 2013, Research Schools International (RSI) led by individual faculty from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education (HGSE) invited St. Andrew’s to become the eighth school in the world to join its global network of schools in the United States, Europe, Australia and South America that conducts cutting-edge research, leads professional development and disseminates research findings to the global educational community.

In 2016, the International Mind, Brain and Education Society awarded the CTTL for its work with the IMBES Mission Award “that recognizes PreK – 12 educators, institutions or programs demonstrating success in establishing, building and supporting infrastructure that enhances collaboration between themselves and MBE researchers for the purpose of improving educational knowledge and practice”.

St. Andrew’s is the only school in the Washington, DC region that houses an internationally recognized Mind, Brain, and Education Science research center. Therefore, it has become a model and opportunity to learn for over 200 different schools and more than 9,000 teachers and leaders who have attended the CTTL’s presentations, workshops, and programs. The CTTL shares its mission-driven public purpose and desire to support St. Andrew’s teachers as exemplars in their use of MBE research-informed strategies through its nationally recognized publication Think Differently and Deeply, which is written by St. Andrew’s pre-school through 12th grade teachers, students, alumni, and the CTTL’s university research partners. More than 10,000 teachers, school leaders, and policymakers have read the CTTL’s publication Think Differently and Deeply’s four volumes, which provide models for how teachers can use research to inform the design of their classes and to work more effectively with each student. As the Director of Research at Wellington College in England said, “If you want to learn 1,000 times more about Mind, Brain, and Education Science, read Think Differently and Deeply.”