What kind of place would bring together high school principals, college presidents, adult education deans, school system superintendents and people looking to improve their fictional writing skills?

Summer Camp for adults, you say?

No, it's the 10 summer career-development programs offered by the Education School's Programs in Professional Education (PPE) to a nationwide audience of college and secondary school educators and administrators.

"It's sort of fun watching the people with all their nametags and wondering, `Does this person look like a president, superintendent, principal or someone studying creative writing,'" says Arthur E. Levine, faculty chair of the Institute for Educational Management (IEM), the most prestigious of the Ed School's summer programs.

After the IEM was successfully started 20 years ago, administrators at the Ed School created the PPE to give educators at the secondary and college levels an opportunity to supplement their skills in a variety of non-traditional programs.

"The strongest part is the power of these programs to validate the importance of what educators are doing in their professional lives," says Clifford H. Baden, the PPE's director. "We bring them here, give them a professional development program that informs them about content and theory and puts them in touch with some of the best thinkers in the country on these topics."

"But in the process, it also puts them in touch with their peers from around the country who care about the same issues and lets them know they are not alone in their concern for whatever issue they are concerned about," Baden adds.

Although PPE is by no means the only such program in the country, administrators at the Ed School say it is one of the only ones which caters to a national audience.

"There aren't a lot of programs in the field of education which attract a national audience," says Baden. "Most continuing education schools reach out to the community, but Harvard and this office see our mandate as being different."

Most participants and coordinators of the summer programs at the Ed School consider the most valuable aspect of these programs to be the opportunity for a frank discussion of educational problems among peers from around the country.

"The opportunity to spend informal time with your peers at other institutions and just talk shop with them on your own terms without the pressure of work is impossible to put a value on," Baden says.

"We try to create a real community among the people so that they feel safe," Levine says. "It's an environment good for letting people talk to each other, try out different ideas and hone their skills."

Baden says that to this end he tries to create a learning environment which is informal and engaging. More than one-half of the faculty is made up of Ed School regulars, while others are recruited from around the country.

"I put a lot of emphasis on ability to stand up in front of everyone without reading from a prepared text and lead an exciting, stimulating discussion--something that gets the participants involved," Baden says. "What the participants want is the opportunity to mix it up with the faculty and mix it up with each other."

PPE students even live in University dorms, which Baden says encourages a community atmosphere, since students don't have much incentive to stay in their rooms.