Begun in the early 1980s, the program now offers graduate level professional development courses to 50 school districts each semester across the Commonwealth. In addition, it facilitates off-Grounds Masters sites in Northern Virginia, Richmond and several school districts.

Through TEMPO, several thousand teachers in our state are able to take the same reading courses and earn the same graduate credit as they could if they lived in driving distance of Charlottesville, the program's home site. McGuffey/TEMPO was a pioneer in distance education as early as 1985, using satellites to transmit live and interactive classes to distant sites. Today, the technology has changed to the much easier-to-use two-way audio and visual digital transmissions called ATM. We are able to hold meetings, for example, with students in classes or design courses for schools with representatives from the district through ATM. All courses in the state are taught using video footage of children and their teachers demonstrating activities being discussed. Libraries of readings are available to students through the University of Virginia's electronic reserves and most courses have home web pages.
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