PD Quality Standards
From LiteracyTentWiki
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1692] Quality standards for Professional Development
From: tjdclaire tjdclaire at cox.net
Date: Tue Nov 6 17:36:43 EST 2007
Hello, everyone. I signed up for this discussion because I have an interest
in my professional development. At the risk of alienating many of those with
power over my position, I shall mention that this state has signed on to the
National Staff Develpment Council's Standards. (If you don't know these,
here is a link which describes them in brief:
http://www.nsdc.org/standards/index.cfm)
Here, these have been interpreted to mean that essentially all professional
development involves in-house collaborations (learning communities) which
will investigate the research literature, discuss it in one's collaborative
group, apply it in the classroom, and assess its effectiveness. Although
this is touted as bottom-up professional development (and I can see its
place as part of PD), the feel is entirely top down. In-state workshops and
the state adult education conference are supposed to adhere to the same
learning community format. We are not to attend national conferences (there
is no funding for these). The NSDC standards themselves recommend "enabling
educators to learn about leading-edge ideas and practices through attendance
at state and national conferences.", although this appears to be only to
learn more about an issue already being investigated in one of the learning
communities.
Unfortunately, in addition, funding for instruction was drastically cut this
year, necessitating a large cut in the number of classes available to
students. A rather hefty portion of our funding is mandated to paid time
for the collaborative groups...which time is subtracted from student contact
time. The stated goal of this professional development is student
improvement; therefore, it seems counterintuitive to me to fund it through a
decrease in student contact time. Did I mention that every teacher is
expected to be a member of one collaborative group or another?
Perhaps someone felt that this kind of staff development was necessary
because some of my fellow teachers never go to any kind of staff development
that is not forced upon them. Another "reason" expressed is that some
educators will go to a national conference and not use any of the ideas that
were seen there in their classroom upon returning. Whether the current plan
is a "fix" to either situation remains to be seen.
My personal feeling is that NSDC's standards, as interpreted by the powers
that be, are not a good sole professional development model for adult
education. The NSDC standards are obviously written for K-12 teachers and
not for adult educators. Although the words "adult learners" appear, it is
apparent that these refer to the teachers, not the students. While confining
professional development to local groups has its benefits, similar problems,
for example, it also limits input to problem solving to what those present
know and what is in the literature. We do not have a large number of
universities offering post baccalaureate degrees in adult education;
therefore we do not have great volumes of research done on adult audiences
from which to draw suggestions. Much of the research that has been done
seems to have been by students in search of a Master's degree who have
limited experience in an adult education classroom and whose ability to
write is limited to the language of the research thesis rather than that of
the informative article backed by valid statistics. We are often not set up
in schools, school districts, etc. in the same way as K-12 teachers where
other teachers are close at hand. We do not have the volumes of data on our
students necessary for "data-driven" planning of staff development (some
sources of data mentioned by the NSDC are: "standardized tests,
district-made tests, student work samples, portfolios", "norm-referenced and
criterionreferenced tests, grade retention, high school completion, reports
of disciplinary actions, school vandalism costs, enrollment in advanced
courses, performance tasks, and participation in post-secondary education").
Often we lack good data even for planning instruction; one set of intake
assessments does not make one an expert on a student. Our students often
are those who have discovered that one size does not fit all. They are,
depending on how your class is structured, at diverse educational
levels...unlike the members of a second grade class. Also, our students
tend to be much more transitory than those in K-12 so assessing the
effectiveness of anything becomes problematical.
Once again adult educators are the victims of fear. (I have to admit some
trepidation in the posting of this contribution to the discussion.) No one
wants to criticize the recommended implementation of the NSDC standards
because we might be seen as "unprofessional" and risk having our funding cut
(wait, didn't that happen anyway?) or our careers ended. However, until
professional development standards are created for adult educators, dealing
with adult students, we will continue to be the victims of every idea that
comes down the pike whether it is in our best interests or not. I think the
purpose of this forum should be what that PD should look like...and perhaps
the NSDC standards could be a good jumping off point for the discussion.
Claire Ludovico
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1738] Re: Quality standards for Professional Development From: Janet Isserlis Janet_Isserlis at brown.edu Date: Thu Nov 8 11:30:12 EST 2007
Claire and others
You raise important issues and questions in your post. I'd like to ask you and others to say a bit more about standards for PD in adult ed. While standards can definitely help guide a process, and give us some important ways to articulate what it is we believe that adult ed practitioners should know and be able to do, ultimately, these standards will only be useful or meaningful if they serve to help us continue our own ongoing learning and development. If they become mere competencies, things we demonstrate and tick off as having "done," we really gain nothing. If, on the other hand, they help us to remember what it is we believe to be important and necessary to good educational practice, then they can be useful to us over the long term.
How can we capitalize on ideas like mutual support and learning communities in combination with both local/our own knowledge as well as that of outside researchers and others whose work may inform ours? I would worry about legislating or too-tightly regulating PD standards, while also hoping that the development of those standards in and of itself could present useful opportunities for ongoing professional development through a thoughtful, probably long-term(ish) process.
Have others worked with the NSDC standards? Could you speak to that work here?
thanks
Janet Isserlis
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1748] Re: Considerations with PD standards
From: robinschwarz1 at aol.com robinschwarz1 at aol.com
Date: Tue Nov 27 22:52:18 EST 2007
Jackie and the list-- my experience with standards is that it is hard to know in the abstract whether standards help or not. Sometimes standards are so general and loose that they hardly serve any purpose despite a lot of time and money spent on developing them. For example, in one of the states I work with there are adult ESOL learning standards: These read " Learners will improve ability to understand spoken English"; "Learners will write in English," etc. This is pure foolishness. What were such "standards" developed for? What English class would not have these as goals? Is it really necessary to codify basic outcomes such as these? Any increase in comprehension or any ability to write a word in English would satisfy such goals.
Conversely, standards can be too prescriptive, limiting creative approaches to a highly fluid, very human process.
By their nature, standards would have to either be the consolidated ideas of some group assigned to write them, or a compromise between those wanting nothing and those wanting rules and guidelines, which could mean the standards cannot really meet the needs of those who will provide PD and those who will be recipients of it.
A comment I read some months ago on very highly prescriptive standards being developed for adult ESOL indicated that the purpose of the standards seemed to be mainly to provide a roadmap for teachers who have no idea how to direct the direction of a class. I wondered what well-trained veteran ESOL teachers would make of such standards. I would want a pretty clear picture of what purpose PD standards were intended to serve.
Robin Lovrien Schwarz
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1749] Re: ProfessionalDevelopment Digest, Vol 26, Issue 18
From: robinschwarz1 at aol.com robinschwarz1 at aol.com
Date: Tue Nov 27 23:09:52 EST 2007
I couldn't agree more with Beverly Wilson's observation that the sole purpose of PD should be to improve learner outcomes. ? I begin my trainings with exactly that sentence.? And I make it clear that participants will be expected to change something in their practice that will directly impact learner outcomes.??
However, what I do not see in Beverly's comments is the component of learner input into what their needs actually are.? I am pretty amazed at how little teachers know about their learners and how infrequently they consult the learners about what the learner actually needs, wants, or sees as the problem in his or her learning. I am equally astounded at how frequently teachers and programs make decisions about what is "good" for learners and then are surprised and disappointed when learners vote with their feet when their needs are not being met.? ? To my mind, PD efforts need to start from the point that teachers will find ways to help learners identify their individual learning goals and then the PD needs to be shaped in ways that support teachers' needs in being able to respond to the needs of their learners as the learners express them.?
Robin Lovrien Schwarz
"Wilson, Beverly" <Beverly.Wilson at azed.gov> wrote:
The discussion generated by this topic has been fascinating. I think the
postings are especially valuable because they reflect the complexity and
personal commitment that each educator needs to make in order to advance
their own learning and growth so their students are successful. Just as
schools need to change to be more responsive to the needs of students,
the professional development systems need to change to better meet the
needs to educators. The days of attending conferences to reward teachers
or used as an incentive for a select few are gone (or should be).
Requiring teachers to attend 2-5 professional development workshops each
year with a
smorgasbord of activities without a clear objective or
purpose should also be examined.
The sole purpose of professional development is to improve student
learning and outcomes. Therefore, professional development planning
should begin with analyzing multiple data sets, including student
testing and demographic data, teacher demographics and educational
experience, program/organizational processes, etc. The planning for
professional development should be a program/organizational focus. After
the program/school staff analyzes the data, the staff can select the
appropriate goals that will improve student achievement and outcomes.
Then the staff can design the professional development plan for the
organization and the staff to meet the goals. Individual professional
development plans would then align to the student and organizational
goal(s). Whether you are a K-12 teacher, community college or university
instructor, or an adult
educator, the process of planning for
professional development should be the same process.
The research on teacher change that Dr. Christine Smith and J. Hofer
(2003) conducted has important implications for the field of adult
education. Their findings also support the work of Lindstrom and Speck
(2004) that focused on the professional development process and the
impact and use of different types of PD. Conferences and the one-time
and series of workshops had the least impact on teacher change-less than
10%, whereas teacher observation and practice, feedback and coaching,
action research and cycle of inquiry, and job embedded activities have a
much greater impact on teacher change-85-90%. If we are relying solely
on conferences and workshops to roll out new practices without the
follow-up activities and integrated processes necessary for teachers to
change, then we are being unrealistic. We don't expect our students
to
increase their knowledge and skills without on-going practice and
support, so why should we expect this from teachers?
In the adult education field, our challenge is to design a professional
development system that engages and supports teachers who may work
part-time as adult educators, and may also hold another full-time job
that may or may not be in the education profession. In my opinion, one
of the primary components of building a foundation for professional
development is to create professional development standards. These
standards could serve as the framework of what we need to know and be
able to do to improve student learning. These standards would need to
provide enough flexibility to ensure that each adult educator and
organization could plan professional development to support their
student learning needs. However, the standards should include the
framework for the types of professional development needed to
facilitate
teacher change.
Beverly Wilson, M.Ed. Professional Learning Manager Arizona Department of Education Adult Education Services 602.364.2727
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1750] Re: Discussion of Qualty Professional Development
From: Evelyn Beaulieu Evelyn_Beaulieu at umit.maine.edu
Date: Wed Nov 28 09:11:45 EST 2007
Hello everyone,
>A. What are the benefits and drawbacks of having quality professional development standards?
My perspective for the importance of adult education professional development standards comes from a statewide perspective. I see the benefits of standards from this perspective as the following:
1. Standards provide a target to plan, implement and evaluate professional development in a systemic and meaningful way.
2. The provide a common target to plan statewide professional development. One need I have experienced over and over when planning professional development was the need for a framework to offer and define quality professional development.
3. The AALPD standards, Jackie provides a link for you all to review, offers us the target to provide quality professional development. In each state we do not have to reinvent the wheel to define quality professional development, we can proceed
to plan, implement and evaluate the content for professional development to meet the needs of our state.
The drawback of adult education professional development standards is that it is a relatively new concept for our field and the need for learning what standards are, the importance of the standards, and the place to use standards is in the early
stages. It certainly is a discussion I look forward to with my colleagues. I want to thank Jackie for providing us this opportunity to begin this conversation.
I would like to ask my colleagues who are involved in planning statewide professional development, how do you see yourself using the adult education professional development standards to plan, implement and evaluate your professional development?
>
>B. Will standards help PD staff to provide -- or practitioners to identify -- quality professional development?
>
Here I would like to address Robin's question in an earlier posting of the need for professional development to help teachers meet the individual needs of students.
One of the first steps in planning professional development using a standards framework is to review your data to identify the needs of your students and programs to best serve adult learners.
Once professional development is implemented, then part of the professional development is to provide participants the tools they need to go back to their content areas to best serve their learners.
>
>C. How well does the AALPD draft measure up with what subscribers have indicated is quality professional development?
I like the draft framework because it began with a national set of professional development standards, (NSDC) and the field has this great opportunity to provide input into the question, "Does this document work for us in adult education
professional development?"
Yours in learning about standards in adult education, Evelyn
Evelyn Beaulieu, Director
Center for Adult Learning and Literacy
5749 Merrill Hall, UM
Orono, ME 04469
(207) 581-2413
evelyn.beaulieu at umit.maine.edu
http://www.umaine.edu/call/
