Beginning with the idea that intellectually engaged teachers produce better results in the classroom, the Teachers Institute of Philadelphia (TIP) enables public school teachers to expand their knowledge base through university-level study and research. TIP aims to bring new content classroom teaching, increase expectations for student achievement and raise teacher morale in the public schools. TIP enables public school teachers from around Philadelphia to enroll in semester-long seminars taught by University of Pennsylvania professors. During the seminars, teachers engage intensively with a topic that is on the cutting-edge of knowledge in the sciences, arts, humanities or social sciences, and write an original curriculum unit based on what they have learned. Teachers then implement their units in the classroom and share them with their colleagues through an online curriculum repository. Participating teachers (called Fellows) are encouraged to become leaders by recruiting others for the program, acting as peer mentors and suggesting new seminar topics. We enroll a select group of our Fellows in National Seminars every summer at our parent institution, the Yale National Initiative, where they undertake additional study and curriculum writing in a two-week intensive program. Evaluation studies have shown that the Teachers Institute approach improves teacher morale, boosts teachers’ expectations of students, and promotes deeper passion for learning by both teacher and student alike.