Research shows that traditional mentoring practices provide some level of emotional support and technical "how-to" help. However, these partnerships rarely focus on issues to improve job satisfaction, advance personal teaching and learning, or improve student learning (Wang & Odell, 2002). At the same time, experienced teachers consistently reject standard professional development workshops as unconnected to their own classrooms, too short term to be meaningful, and isolating rather than collaborative (Desimone. Porter, Garet, Yoon, & Birman, 2002). They also feel unsupported as mentors and confused about how to support others while they themselves are raising new questions about teaching and learning (Wang et. al., 2002).Three universities, state agencies, and eleven school district partners are completing a $6.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education: the Georgia Systemic Teacher Education Program (GSTEP). Our vision is to create a seamless six-year process for teacher preparation from decision to teach through the first years of teaching. In particular, we are creating, facilitating, and disseminating models of Teacher Learning Communities that are inquiry driven, cross career in scope, and sustainable. Our comprehensive models bring together the transformative nature of professional learning communities (DuFour and Eaker, 1998; Fullan, 2001; Schmoker, 2004), with a commitment to cross-career mentoring and reciprocal learning (Hudson-Ross, Desmet, & Harrison, 1999), and with the potential of an up-to-date web-based infrastructure (Barab, MaKinster, Moore, Cunningham & Team, 2001). Faculty in Arts and Sciences, Education, and technology have collaborated for five years. Research MethodologyOur research methodology includes participant feedback, user-driven development, and focus groups. Data from these procedures-both qualitative and quantitative-create robust illustrations of three Teacher Learning Communities both in action and impact. We use data to theorize about how these formats work against traditional limitations of professional learning and mentoring.The ECER PresentationIn this round table, we present a conceptual framework and data set for each type of Learning Community, then open the session to in-depth dialogue about problems, successes, issues, and resources available in creating Teacher Learning Communities.Case #1: Critical Friends Groups (CFG) are part of the nationally renowned professional development model from the National School Reform Faculty (National School Reform Faculty, 2004). Critical Friends Groups provide structures or protocols for conversations among educators that focus attention on specific examples of student and teacher work. Guided by trained facilitators, research shows that CFG teachers engage in deeper, more meaningful and valued talk about student learning. Through GSTEP, over 100 teachers have been trained as facilitators in Georgia. Case #2: The GSTEP BRIDGE is an online resource database developed by and for teachers. The BRIDGE (www.teachersbridge.org) allows any user to submit, peer-review, and use high quality resources generated by teachers in learning communities. By September 2005, the first pilot groups of beginning teachers and their mentors will have explored the use of facilitated CFG protocols in an on-line environment, a first for the CFG work. Case #3: Chat with the Experts, another GSTEP program, invites teachers in any geographic location to raise questions and get answers from other teachers in real time via the web. The work of these scheduled learning communities is edited and published on the BRIDGE, making their insights and debates available to all BRIDGE users. Through these three types of Teacher Learning Communities, teachers' private knowledge -often relegated to file drawers or personal practice -is becoming available to all teachers. This approach is creating a new culture of teaching that links any teacher at any time with other learners. We argue that Teacher Learning Communities redouble their value as their insights become available through new forms of sharing. ReferencesBarab, S. A., MaKinster, J., Moore, J. A., Cunningham, D., & Team, I. D. (2001). Designing and building an on-line community: The struggle to support sociability in the Inquiry Learning Forum. Educational Technology Research and Development, 49(4), 71-96.Desimone, L.M., Porter. A.C., Garet, M.S., Yoon, K.S., & Birman, B.F. for National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching. (2002). Effects of professional development on teachers' instruction: Results from a three-year longitudinal study. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24(2). 81-112.DuFour, R. & Eaker, R. (1998). Professional learning communities at work: Best practices for enhancing student achievement. Bloomington, IN: National Educational Service.Fullan, M. (2001). The new meaning of educational change. New York: Teachers College Press.Hudson-Ross, S., Desmet, C., & Harrison, S. (1999, July). English as cross-career, collaborative inquiry. Paper presented at the International Federation of Teachers of English Conference, Coventry, England.National School Reform Faculty (2004). Retrieved August 2004, from http://www.nsrfharmony.orgSchmoker, M. (2004, February). Tipping point: From feckless reform to substantive instructional improvement, Phi Delta Kappan. 85(6), 424-432.Wang, J., & Odell, S. (2002, Fall). Mentored learning to teach according to standards-based reform: A critical review. Review of Educational Research, 72 (3), 481-546.