Teacher Center's origins are found in Britain and Japan. Discussion of the development of Teacher Centers in the United States starts around 1978 taking cues from the British, thanks to Al Shanker, after his visit to England. Although various iterations of what teacher centers are existed the generally agreed upon tenants seem to be that Teacher Centers should be a place, where teachers voluntarily come to develop and participate in programs for teacher improvement. For many centers, it was also a place where teachers could share success. The fact that no two teacher centers are organized or operated in exactly the same way is due to its design to react to the needs of the teachers of each individual center. For more information related to the History of Teacher Centers, please click here.

New York State, supported Teacher Centers after initial federal funding was removed in 1980s. The passaged of Ed law 316 provided the governance for Teacher Centers. It ensured that teacher centers boards were controlled by a policy board that would be comprised of at least 51% teachers. Each teacher center is independently operated and as such no two teacher centers looks or feels like any other. For more information about Teacher Centers In New York State, click here.