PDPolicyUpdate7-29-05

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As of Summer 2004, the NIFL-AALPD discussion list subscribers have been engaged in discussions of professional development (PD) policies that would best support teachers to access and benefit from professional development. From these discussions, we have drafted and revised a PD Policy Platform (see below). The National Adult Education Professional Development Consortium (NAEPDC)[[1]] will use a final version of these policy recommendations at their November 2005 meeting in Denver to introduce State ABE Directors to policies that could improve their state professional development systems. Several of these PD policies, if adopted, would advance The National Literacy Summit 2000 Action Agenda[[2]] (see the matrix below).

Contribute your voice to this important policy initiative. Provide additions/revisions to the policies and/or examples for the PD Policy Matrix below. Visit:AddingToThePDPolicyMatrix or email your revisions to Jackie Taylor at <jataylor@utk.edu>.

Deadline for Submitting Final Feedback: *September 14, 2005*
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AALPD Recommended Policies to Support Professional Development for Adult Education Practitioners

Executive Summary

Goal:

The adoption of policies at national, state and local levels that adequately support the participation of adult basic education, adult ESOL, and adult secondary education practitioners (including paraprofessionals and learner leaders who are staff members) in professional development which will help them be effective teachers, tutors, counselors, and administrators.

Policies:

1. Orientation/Induction for Teachers New to Adult Education: All teachers new to adult education should have an orientation to teaching in the field of adult basic education within the first 6 months of their teaching.

2. Expectations for Participation in Professional Development: Every state and program should expect that all practitioners, no matter how experienced, will continue professional learning throughout their careers.

3. Professional Development Plans: Each program should be funded a minimum of 1% of its annual staff hours to support teachers in developing an annual professional development plan that dovetails with its program improvement process. All teachers should have PD plans, and programs should be monitored to see that these are real and meaningful to teachers and to the program.

4. Paid Professional Development Release Time: All practitioners should have a minimum of 2.5% of their annual working time as paid professional development. Paid professional development includes any professional learning activity (group or individual) that advances practitioners towards achieving the goals outlined in their professional development plans.


5. Participation in Program Improvement: A minimum of 2% of each program's budget should be set aside for teachers to participate in program improvement [such as designing a new curriculum (not just lesson planning), improving recruiting, designing a new student orientation, using data for program improvement, etc.].

6. Participation in the Field of Adult Education: All full-time practitioners should be funded for at least 1% of their annual working time to participate in activities as a member of the field, including:

  • providing professional development to other teachers inside or outside of the program,
  • working towards addressing students’ needs (transportation, child care, health services, job assistance, etc.) that may prevent students from participating in the program, and
  • building community partnerships (with the health care system, K-12 system, libraries, local businesses, career centers, etc.) to improve services to adult learners.

7. Teachers’ Working Conditions: In addition to paid professional development time, programs should have sufficient resources to provide working conditions that will allow teachers to stay in the field, find the work satisfying, and grow professionally, including:

  • Adequate teacher salaries
  • benefits for all teachers (including part-time),
  • paid prep time for all teachers (including part-time),
  • access for all teachers to at least one hour a week of professional sharing time with either colleagues or a coordinator who supports their teaching, and
  • at least monthly mechanisms (staff meetings, meetings with director) for voicing their ideas and participating in decisions about the program.

8. Tuition Reimbursement: Programs should be funded to provide tuition reimbursement at the equivalent of one college course per semester to teachers who have higher education attainment as a part of their professional development plans.

9. Performance Evaluation and Professional Improvement: Programs should conduct performance evaluations of practitioners, who should show evidence of achievement, including: application of learning and reflection, or acquisition of new skills and knowledge, as described in the goals of their professional development plans. The performance evaluation results should be used to inform practitioners’ future PD planning.

10. Professional Development System: Each state should have a funded state literacy resource center or other agency that provides direct professional development to practitioners and technical assistance to help programs organize in-house professional development. A person should be designated in each program and paid to be the (most often part-time) coordinator of program and professional development.

11. Balance between State-driven and Teacher-Driven Professional Development: Every state literacy resource center or professional development system/agency and every program should use the professional development plans of the practitioners in their state or program and/or use needs assessments (in which teachers, administrators, and adult learners have participated) to plan professional development activities relevant to and driven by teachers’ and (ultimately) students’ needs. The needs for professional development as defined by practitioners and adult learners, as well as the needs for program improvement, should be evenly balanced with the needs of the state ABE regulating agency/ies.

12. Access to Professional Development Activities: The state literacy resource center or statewide professional development agency/system should have the mandate and funding to ensure that every practitioner (new and experienced, part-time and full-time) has access to professional development, throughout the year, both inside and outside of his/her program, and that every practitioner has access to a variety of types of professional development (conferences, workshops, study circles, courses, teacher research and other forms of more sustained PD, etc.) with a variety of content, organized at a variety of times and locations, including on-line options.

13. Quality of Professional Development: Full-time facilitators of professional development should complete an annual plan for organizing and delivering professional development, to be reviewed by an advisory group made up of practitioners. Professional developers should be funded to spend a minimum of 2% of their time each year teaching in the ABE/ESOL classroom.

14. Adult Learner Voice in Professional Development: The state professional development agency and each individual program should have dedicated funding to ensure that adult learners’ voices are included in developing professional development policies and in delivering professional development at the local program, state, and federal levels.

15. Professional Development for Learner Leaders Who Work in the Field: Current or former students who are tutors, administrators, program coordinators, and counselors, should have access to professional development offered by state professional development and technical assistance agencies, given additional PD to meet their needs if necessary, and/ or granted internships to work and learn within the program.

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