Modes of Delivery

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Subject:[ProfessionalDevelopment] State Professional Development Systems
From:Jacobson, Erik EJacobson at air.org
Date:Mon Jan 30 15:15:56 EST 2006

David asked a number of interesting questions, each of which can take some time to respond to. I am going to respond to a few of them, one at a time, and other members of the California team will respond to others. Some of this information was already included in our introduction, but I will include it here to address the specific questions.

1) What are the modes you use to deliver PD in addition to courses and workshops? Do you use study circles? Teacher sharings? Online courses? Curriculum projects? What else?

In addition to workshops and courses (online and otherwise) we do offer study circles. We have trained facilitators to run the NCSALL study circle on learner persistence. These study circles are site-based, so after the training the facilitators return to their own agency/program to lead the circles. We are now in the planning stage to offer a facilitator training on NSCALL's study circle on Research-based Adult Reading Instruction.

Each of the local Professional Development Centers also hosts networking meetings. These develop based on the interests of local practitioners, so every agency does not always run the same topics. Popular networking groups include ones for: ESOL teachers, administrators, EL Civics, CASAS, small schools, and adults with disabilities.

We also offer a number of institutes. Participants meet for two to three days at an initial meeting, and then return several months later to continue their work. We are currently working with a group of teachers on field-based research/practitioner research and with another group on developing learning communities through site-based professional development. We also offer a two-year leadership institute that takes place over four different meeting times.

Publications are also an important part of what we do. We have a bi-annual newsletter that always includes a one-page article on research on professional development and commentary from working teachers on their own professional development. We have published research briefs and summaries, and have created a guide to holding discussion groups based on those readings.

Erik Jacobson
CALPRO/California

Subject:[ProfessionalDevelopment] Brief answers from MA to PD questions 1, 2, & 4 From:Stephen Reuys Steve.Reuys at umb.edu Date:Wed Feb 1 13:35:03 EST 2006

1. What are the modes you use to deliver PD in addition to courses and workshops? Do you use study circles? Teacher sharings? Online courses? Curriculum projects? What else?

Although most of the staff and program development activities that SABES provides are done as multi-session courses or single-session workshops, the regions may also sponsor various sharing groups or study circles that are intended for certain groups of staff, such as counselors or volunteer coordinators, or that provide an opportunity for practitioners to discuss with colleagues certain topics, such as promoting attendance and retention in ABE and GED programs. We have offered a number of professional development activities on-line and are exploring the use of various models of distance learning for PD purposes, including both "pure" on-line activities and what we're calling "hybrid" activities that involve some face-to-face meeting time as well as work done on-line. Although most of our activities are offered regionally or statewide, some of our work is being conducted using a "program-based" approach, where we work in an intensive way over time on a certain topic (such as teaching writing) with the staff of a small nuumber of individual programs. We also provide a large amount of "technical assistance" to individual programs and practitioners, both in response to requests from the field, as follow-up to program monitorings conducted by the state Department of Education, and as follow-up to certain staff or program development activities, such as the Planning for Program Improvement training.

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment] professional development system for adult education in New York State
From: Kathleen Clarity KCLARITY at MAIL.NYSED.GOV
Date: Thu Feb 2 11:45:04 EST 2006

Good morning!

I would like to introduce myself. I have recently joined the NYS Education Dept.'s Adult Education and Workforce Development Team. One of my responsibilities will be helping to support a statewide professional development system and resource guide that we hope will bolster our staff development services and knowledge base as we work together to support adult education via our providers.

We accomplish much of this work through our Regional Networks and our Regional Network Directors, who serve as liaison with our many adult education providers across the state. My specific assignment involves working with the Downstate area and thus far I have been very fortunate in having the chance to work with Ira Yankwitt and Martin Murphy in this regard as well as with our other Regional Network Directors.

I would like to respond to the following questions: 1, 6, and 7.

1. We deliver PD through a variety of methods in addition to courses and workshops. We maintain extensive information on the New York State Education Department's main website as well as on the Adult Education and Workforce Development Website. There is quite a bit of useful information, including a wide array of online material that can be used via these website and the Department plans to continue to provide more and more materials on the web so that material will be available in a convenient manner. Our office is continually involved in working with the field to review innovative curriculum projects and we support and monitor pilot deliveries of new materials. I would say that our work via our Regional Adult Education Networks, in which we continually work collaboratively with our Regional Network Directors to ensure that we can use collective knowledge and expertise to support PD, seems to be a very useful and necessary way to see that our efforts meet the needs of the field. We meet monthly and often arrange via the Network to secure training opportunities and products that our regional providers can benefit from. Study circles, teacher sharings, online courses, curriculum projects are all in use in the regions and our Network meetings facilitate meaningful sharing on best practice. We are currently working clsoely with our Network on establishing a stateside staff development policy, training delivery and resource manual are have issued a three year competitive proposal to secure the services of a vendor in this regard. We will work closely with our Network to ensure that all products secured via this effort meet the needs of our providers.

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment] Study Circles
From: Jacobson, Erik EJacobson at air.org
Date: Tue Feb 7 13:45:32 EST 2006

We (CALPRO in California) have just updated the section of our Web site that deals with study circles on learner persistence. This is the address:

http://www.calpro-online.org/announce/LPcircles.asp

There are links to three documents.

1) A list of ideas that study circle participants came up with during brainstorming sessions.
2) A list of actions that programs have already taken to respond to study circles.
3) Outlines and timelines for proposed projects to address learner persistence.

We are hoping to continue to develop this site as we get more feedback about how teachers and administrators are trying to enact persistence-related change in their programs. As has been noted, one key concern of study circle participants has been "what's next?" Of course the Web site is not an end in itself, but it is part of the process of creating resources that will support ongoing PD.

Erik Jacobson

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