Taipei American School offers teachers tremendous opportunities for professional development with the specific purpose of improving student learning.

Unlike many institutions in which professional development funds are seen as contractual benefits and are allocated to all faculty in an accruable lump sum, PD funding at TAS is pooled into a much larger sum in order to support specific, targeted opportunities to provide faculty with the knowledge and skills necessary to improve the learning of TAS students. 

There are several ways in which funding is made available to faculty. 

DIVISIONAL ALLOCATIONS
With the 2007-2008 restructuring of the PD budget, the past practice of individual PD applications has been replaced with divisional directed PD budgets which are distributed based on divisional need by the respective principals.

PRE-ALLOCATED FUNDING - For certain positions in the school (administrators, program coordinators, counselors, etc.) there are annual allocations for specific workshop or conference attendance.  In addition to these positions, each discipline is allocated an annual conference or workshop attendance. 

AP/IB ALLOCATED FUNDING - In addition, the PD budget contains funds for the AP/IB Coordinator has  for teacher training for AP and IB workshops.  These are generally offered in the summer vacation but can also be used for regional workshops during the year.

TAS LEADERSHIP PROGRAM - Leadership Certificate through SUNY
TAS has partnered with SUNY to offer an onsite graduate degree (Master's of Science in Multidisciplinary Studies).  Since SUNY allows us to tailor courses and options to our school's specific needs and initiatives, it has been decided that PD monies will be offered to help subsidize the continuation of this program.  Those who are deemed to be currently in a "leadership position" will be fully subsidized for all courses in the Leadership Program.  Those not currently in a "leadership position" will need to pay US$300 per course in the five course program.