The Scenario - HoPip Academy

The storied yet fictitious HoPip Academy could be any urban school in America –

It is located in the urban core, an area with potentially greater risks of exposure to crime, poverty, and numerous social ills than other parts of the city. For some, the events of the school day offer an outlet to problems at home – for others, school is a means to a professional end or something to do to play sports. Some kids just seem to show up and play school.

Out of the 400 students that attend HoPip:

·         80% receive free and/or reduced lunch,

·         60% of the student body are ethnic minorities and

·         the English Language Learners population (ELL) is on the rise.

Of all the problems the school has, diversity is not one of them...

Out of the 40 teachers employed, half are seemingly “stuck-in-their-ways” veterans. Every year, half of the staff has to be hired for a myriad of reasons – some teachers cannot adapt to needs and expectations of our urban school and some do not want to. Those left standing are resistant to changing the school’s culture, citing behavior modification as most important. Teacher morale is low and beginning to infect student motivations. Any meetings or professional development sessions held to address the issues generally end with attitudinal sighs and someone saying, "you don't have to do that after you close your door"...

The supportive neighborhood and school’s small size should be components in creating an optimal learning environment but teachers and students alike call HoPip a dismal prison-like atmosphere.

Problems ! & Solutions ?

You are responsible for providing effective, high quality professional development for the schools in your district.  In your efforts to fulfill that responsibility you confront several questions and obstacles, including the following:

1. How should you determine the content of the professional development program?
2. What is the most effective delivery or structure of high quality professional development?
3. How can you assess the impact of professional development?

We could spend years trying to fix whatever ails the student body but for the purposes of this task, we will focus on the staff.

1a. During a staff meeting, teachers worked in small groups of 4-5 to complete the "Perfect School" assessment. Teachers informally identified and discussed school strengths and weaknesses.

1b. To further identify and/or clarify issues, a leadership team (consisting of new and veteran teachers and administrators) compiled a data picture of our school gathered from the Perfect School assessment and a team-created questionnaire and focus groups to determine the following problems:

• Teacher burn out/ resistance to change
• The lack of strong professional relationships
• The lack of effective professional development

all play interconnected roles as to why HoPip just isn't working.

2. Quality professional development has to be embedded during the school day, whether daily or a specified time once per week and on-going. Teachers must be able to use whatever is learned in trainings, seminars, workshops in practical applications, meaning what is discussed in professional development must be relevant and functional in increasing student achievement. Information obtained in professional development must be results oriented, reflective, content rich, and regularly evaluated.

3. To evaluate the impact of professional development, teams can assess work formatively, summatively, through staff surveys, etc. See the NCREL link for details.

NCREL - Evaluating Professional Growth and Development

On Leadership...

4. You are not personally in a position to dictate programs or training to either individual educators or schools.  What is the best way to recruit participants when you are offering a program that you believe has great potential for improving schools?

Although one generally has to be in an authoritative position to mandate change, one does not have to be in a position of authority to galvanize the sparks for change. Watch the video below for instructions on how to be the "first follower"...

Conclusions

5. Will you attempt to establish specific expectations, parameters, and/or requirements for those who elect to enroll in an ongoing professional development or school improvement program? If so, how should you respond if a school or individual participant does not honor the agreed-upon expectations?

5.  The PLC teams will establish norms, expectations, and consequences for those that resist participating - but the best case scenario occurs when ALL teachers can actively participate in and support change. For those times when support is not garnered from all invested parties, administrative actions may need to be taken to address those that cannot or will not put their agendas, fears, and needs behind student achievement.  

Your thoughts or examples?...

Educator's Toolkit

In speaking of professional development, here are links to helpful sites to find definitions, examples, or other resources:
All Things PLC - Research, Education tools, and Blog for Building a Professional Learning Community

ASCD - Learn. Teach. Lead

Best Practices - NEA website information or from this school in Utah (Best Practices)
Solution-Tree - Inspired Professional Development

Here are results-based instructional strategies and resources:
Marzano's Essential Nine

Notebook Foldables Templates

Here are some links to fabulous Web 2.0 information and resources:
Bloom's Digital Taxonomy

Web  2.0 for Teachers

Free Tech 4 Teachers 

Book - Ban Those Bird Units! 15 Models for Teaching and Learning in Information-rich and Technology-rich Environments. Follow this link to read action research results using this text

Book - Web 2.0, New Tools, New Schools

The Annotated Bibliography

Formative and Summative Evaluation of Professional Development

1. Corcoran, T.B. (1995). Helping teachers teach well: Transforming professional development. CPRE Policy Briefs. Brunswick, NJ: Center for Policy Research in Education

Corcoran argues that teachers should play a greater role in planning professional development since most likely they are the individuals who will implement it in the classroom. He also advocates for allowing teachers more time to interact with colleagues to share new strategies. This article assists policymakers to better engage teachers in the professional development process on a broader scale.

2. Guskey, T.R. (1995). Results-oriented professional development: In search of an optimal mix of effective practices. Journal of Staff Development, v15 n4 p42-50

Guskey proposes six guidelines for evaluating results oriented professional development. They are:

A. Recognize Change as Both an Individual and Organizational Process Few people enjoy change, but Guskey says that the change provided by professional learning communities must be relevant to the instructional staff.

B. Think Big, but Start Small

We all have grand ideas on how our successful our school should be, but Guskey cautions to strive for the small victories before moving on to bigger targets.

C. Work in Teams to Maintain Support

Teamwork is an essential piece of the professional learning communities model. Without teamwork, little progress can be made.

D. Include Procedures for Feedback on Results

Specific procedures for feedback should be established within professional learning communities. If a new program is not working, adjustments can be made promptly.

E. Provide Follow-Up, Support, and Pressure

Guskey states that professional development should be viewed as a process and not an event. There should be ample opportunities for additional support.

F. Integrate Programs

Guskey stresses the need for educators to continue to be innovate and find new ways to mesh various programs within the school setting to maximize student achievement.

3. Mack, P. (1998). A spiral plan for delivery and evaluation of continuous professional development. National Staff Development Council Conference. Eric Document 426 981.

Mack presents an illustration of a spiral whereby the bottom of the spiral represents the beginning of the professional development process (setting goals, aligning learning plan with goals) and continues in an upward progression with the next level of the spiral (considering outcomes) until it reaches the top levels with participation from focus groups. This graphic is useful for schools to plot their position on the professional development continuum.

4. Puma, M., Raphael, J. (2001) Evaluating standards based professional development for teachers: a handbook for practitioners. Washington D.C.: The Urban Institute.

Puma and Raphael make the claim that there is no “right way” to evaluate professional development. Instead, they determined that PLCs should examine the immediate and final outcomes they wish to achieve. This handbook is constructed in a very easy to read format and gives practical suggestions on engaging stakeholders and data collection.