Founded in 1974 by Dr. Harvey F. Silver and the late Richard W. Strong, Silver Strong & Associates (SSA) is an educational consulting and publishing company that provides custom professional development and practical resources to schools and districts throughout the country.

For nearly 40 years, SSA has partnered with hundreds of schools, districts, and state education organizations throughout the United States and Canada to provide high-quality professional development for teachers, administrators, and school leaders. The organization has extensive experience working with schools in urban, suburban, and rural communities to meet the needs of diverse learners. During these years, SSA has successfully executed over 3200 professional development contracts (including many multi-year partnerships) and has built an exceptional staff of professionals who provide support in all areas necessary for developing and implementing customized professional development programs for multiple school districts nationwide.

In a typical partnership—before any professional development work begins—SSA trainers commit to learning: They assess school culture and conduct meetings with key faculty memebers to identify needs. They then work with school and district leaders to convert these initial discussions and findings into a meaningful plan that aligns with the district's (or school's) identified needs and goals. Finally, SSA puts the plan into action and provides the training, coaching, and resources needed to support teachers, administrators, and leaders throughout the process.

Conducting SSA's professional development with schools and districts is a national network of more than a dozen independent consultants and coaches led by SSA's founder and president, Dr. Harvey F. Silver. A nationally recognized presenter, trainer, and coach, Dr. Silver has conducted thousands of professional development workshops and institutes for schools, districts, and state education organizations throughout the United States and Canada. With the late Richard Strong, Harvey developed The Thoughtful Classroom™—a renowned professional development program dedicated to the goal of "Making Students as Important as Standards." More recently, Dr. Silver has collaborated with Matthew J. Perini (SSA's Director of Publishing & Content Development) and hundreds of educators from across the country to develop The Thoughtful Classroom Teacher Effectiveness Framework (TCTEF)—a comprehensive system for observing, evaluating, and refining classroom practice.

All of SSA's independent consultants and coaches are experienced educators, many of whom have served as building- or district-level administrators, as professors of education, or in leadership positions with state and national associations. SSA's distinguished network of trainers consists of experts in customizing professional development to help teachers and administrators raise the quality of instruction at the classroom, school, and district levels.

SSA's central office in New Jersey is also home to Thoughtful Education Press (TEP), SSA's own innovative publishing division. TEP produces a range of resources for educators on a variety of topics—from customized workshop packets, to award-winning books, to professional learning guides, to online assessments. Through its own channels and strategic partnerships with leading national publishers, TEP has produced a number of recent bestsellers in education:

• The Core Six: Essential Strategies for Achieving Excellence with the Common Core (Silver, Dewing, & Perini, 2012; published with ASCD)
  
  
• Tools for Thoughtful Assessment: Classroom-Ready Techniques for Improving Teaching and Learning (Boutz, Silver, Jackson, & Perini, 2012; Thoughtful Education Press)
  
  
• Math Tools, Grades 3-12: 60+ Ways to Build Mathematical Practices, Differentiate Instruction, and Increase Student Engagement (2nd edition) (Silver, Brunsting, Walsh, & Thomas, 2012; published with Corwin)
  
  
• The Strategic Teacher PLC Guide Series (published with ASCD)
  • Compare & Contrast (Silver, 2010)
  • The Interactive Lecture (Silver & Perini, 2010)
  • Reading for Meaning (Silver, Morris, & Klein, 2010)
  • Task Rotation (Silver, Jackson, & Moirao, 2011)
  • Inference (Silver, Dewing, & Perini, 2012)
    
    
• The Strategic Teacher: Selecting the Right Research-Based Strategy for Every Lesson (Silver, Strong, & Perini, 2007; published with ASCD)

Meet Our Professional Development Faculty