Courses toward the M.Ed. degree are offered at sites convenient for learners, one weekend a month. The community meets a total of 20 weekends in consecutive semesters. A semester includes four, monthly weekend sessions with time in between to apply what learning community members have learned in their classrooms.

Two of the weekend sessions include professional networking conferences. These conferences enhance the weekend learning and are required to complete the degree. A weekend conference is held in the Minneapolis area during each of the spring semesters. While the weekend conferences are part of the community learning experience, they allow learners to engage in further inquiry and community networking beyond the learning community weekends at their regular learning community site. The conference experiences further the development of learning experiences and establish potential connections for continued professional growth and development.

The curriculum is integrated around teacher self-study of their 1) inner life of beliefs, visions, goals, hopes and dreams 2) instructional practices 3) knowledge in the discipline(s) 4) creation of a productive and caring learning environment and 5) use of assessment as a tool to promote student learning. The self-study process is anchored by action research embedded in the learner’s work in their classroom. The assessment process focuses on promoting learner growth through alignment of instruction and assessment with research based practices in education.