Integrating with School Improvement
Too often, professional development is episodic response to an immediate problem or an opportunity driven by external funding and deals with only part of the problem teachers confront when trying to improve student achievement. If professional development is to be effective, it must deal with authentic problems and needs to do so over time. Moreover, unless PD is carried out in the context of a plan for school improvement, it is unlikely that teachers will have the resources and support they need to fully utilize what they have learned. Thus, our ninth principle for designing professional development:
Professional development should be connected to a comprehensive change process focused on specific goals for improving student learning.
Saying that PD should be consistent and continuous does not mean that PD should be scheduled over a year or semester but that it should be developmental in nature and responsive to teachers’ needs to learn more as they try and evaluate newly learned practices.
Indicator 4.9 of the KEYS survey (Staff development is consistent, comprehensive and related to practices in the school) examines whether your school's professional development program is perceived as being consistent with its school improvement plan or restructuring efforts, and whether it is sustained and coherently focused. It also examines whether professional development activities afford opportunities for collegiality, and whether the professional development activities include sufficient time to evaluate their impact on subsequent schooling processes (e.g., school improvement, student outcomes).
Professional development should be connected to a comprehensive change process focused on specific goals for improving student learning.
Saying that PD should be consistent and continuous does not mean that PD should be scheduled over a year or semester but that it should be developmental in nature and responsive to teachers’ needs to learn more as they try and evaluate newly learned practices.
Indicator 4.9 of the KEYS survey (Staff development is consistent, comprehensive and related to practices in the school) examines whether your school's professional development program is perceived as being consistent with its school improvement plan or restructuring efforts, and whether it is sustained and coherently focused. It also examines whether professional development activities afford opportunities for collegiality, and whether the professional development activities include sufficient time to evaluate their impact on subsequent schooling processes (e.g., school improvement, student outcomes).