Quality Standards for PD
From LiteracyTentWiki
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment] Quality Standards for Professional Development
From: jataylor jataylor at utk.edu
Date: Tue Feb 7 00:13:18 EST 2006
Hello everyone,
I wouldn't say that this is a theme I've noticed (or at least yet!), but I do have a question.
George, in a post last week regarding regional trainers (and thank you, BTW!), you mentioned that 'Individual SABES staff work closely with the trainer regardless of the training content to ensure that the activity meets certain standards and that also it is aligned w/ the specific Learning Objectives for each activity.'
Tennessee state professional development also identifies trainers and teacher leaders to provide professional development, using many of the strategies you describe below.
Okay, (2) questions: I'm wondering, does anyone (guests/subscribers) have a formal set of criteria by which you use to select trainers and other professional development staff to provide professional development? I guess what I'm getting at is, from the many perspectives on this list, what makes a quality trainer? Further, what quality standards does your professional development need to meet (regardless of content) in order for your organization to offer/endorse it? Are either of these something guests and subscribers would share with us?
More generally, what standards do others think should be achieved for adult education professional development? How/where does this fit into the concept of "systems of professional development"?
Thanks for your thoughts, Jackie
Subject:[ProfessionalDevelopment] Quality Standards for ProfessionalDevelopment
From: Corley, Mary Ann MCorley at air.org
Date: Tue Feb 7 00:52:14 EST 2006
Jackie and others:
Just a quick note: The following is not exactly responding to your
specific questions, but it is related to the discussion.
Subscribers to this discussion list may be interested in a publication
about competencies for professional development specialists or
coordinators. It is a PRO-NET publication from 2002, developed by Renee
Sherman, Dionne Dobbins, John Tibbetts, Judith Crocker, and Michael
Dlott of the American Institutes for Research. You can download the
document from the CALPRO Web site at www.calpro-online.org, then click
on "Publications" on the left menu, then scroll down to the specific
publication--or simply access the following URL:
http://www.calpro-online.org/pubs/pdccsiiaep_73.pdf
When CALPRO has new workshops developed and plans a Training of Trainers
(ToT) to build capacity to roll out the workshop statewide, we invite
our professional development center (PDC) managers to nominate persons
in their regions to attend the ToT. We ask that the PDC managers
nominate persons who they know are good facilitators and who have had
successful experiences as workshop presenters. CALPRO also requires that
all new presenters/ facilitators take the CALPRO training on
Presentation and Facilitation Skills. This, of course, still doesn't
guarantee that the trainers will be successful--but it helps. You can
apply a set of standards or competencies, but the real acid test, I
suppose, is found in the reaction of workshop participants.
Facilitators/presenters who get great reviews get invited back to
conduct many more workshops! We keep a database of trainers, and the PDC
managers can select from this list. Word somehow gets out about who the
dynamite presenters/facilitators are.
I invite you to access and review the above-referenced document.
More later--thanks,
-Mary Ann Corley
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment] Quality Standards for Professional Development
From: Cassie Drennon Bryant ass_c at bellsouth.net
Tue Feb 7 10:25:45 EST 2006
Hi George,
Thanks for taking the time last week to provide such a full picture of the regional training model in Massachusetts. You got me thinking when you wrote . . .
- "Individual SABES staff work closely with the trainer regardless of the training content to ensure that the activity meets certain standards . . ."
I see from Jackie's post that she was also struck by this comment in your recent post. As a result, she posted a question to the group this morning about quality standards for PD. Since I had actually drafted what follows a few days ago (I've been on the road for several days and only able to get on email occassionally!), I'm going to go ahead and post it now. My questions overlap quite a bit with Jackie's.
First, George, can you talk more about the standards to which you refer, and how you respond when it appears that training may not be meeting those standards?
And for everyone:
The National Staff Development Council has invested a number of years in developing quality standards for professional development in K-12. I'm beginning to hear about similar efforts in ABE but I don't have a handle on how extensive those efforts have been or their results. I'm curious to hear from folks on this list about their related endeavors.
- 1) Have any states attempted to define high quality professional development ? How about a high quality PD "system?" If so, please tell us about the process you used to arrive at that definition. What influenced your work in this area?
- 2) Does your state have a process in place to assess the quality of your overall PD system? How does the process work? Who is involved? How often does it take place? etc.
- 3) What are some example standards and quality indicators for PD systems?
- 4) If your state has worked on some of this, what progress have you made? Are there any lessons learned that can be shared at this point?
- 5) What is the case to be made, either for or against, the effort to hold PD systems accountable for achieving some standards of quality?
I'm very interested to hear. Thanks,
Cassie
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment] Quality Standards for ProfessionalDevelopment
From: Corley, Mary Ann MCorley at air.org
Date: Tue Feb 7 11:55:42 EST 2006
Hi, Cassie:
I want to share (below) the CALPRO-developed Guiding Principles for
Professional Development. We used NSDC and other resources when we
developed these. This doesn't begin to respond to all your
questions--but I thought I'd share these.
Thanks,
Mary Ann Corley
CALPRO GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
FOCUS
Effective professional development
- 1. has a clear focus on learners and high expectations for learning outcomes;
- 2. focuses on staff and organizational change.
PLANNING
Effective professional development
- 3. is aligned with the agency's mission and goals;
- 4. reflects the best available research, professional wisdom, and practices for leading, teaching, and learning;
- 5. is planned collaboratively by administrators, participants, and facilitators;
- 6. fosters decision-making that is data-driven, research-based, and collaborative.
IMPLEMENTATION
Effective professional development
- 7. is embedded in day-to-day educational activities;
- 8. makes small, incremental changes toward a larger vision
(Thomas Guskey: "Think big, but start small.")
EVALUATION
Effective professional development
- 9. requires the evaluation of instructional and student learning outcomes;
- 10. includes an evaluation plan that is ongoing and uses multiples sources;
- 11. ensures an equitable and quality education for all students.
- Sources:
Building bridges: The mission and principles of professional development (1994). U.S. Department of Education.
Guskey, Thomas (Spring 1997). Research needs to link professional development and student learning. Journal of Staff Development, pp. 38-39.
NSDC's standards for staff development (2001). Oxford, OH: National Staff Development Council.
Survey of instructional and organizational effectiveness: A
comprehensive survey to support data-driven and research-based school improvement planning (1998). Schaumburg, IL: National Study of School Evaluation.
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment] Quality Standards for ProfessionalDevelopment
From: Mina Reddy mina_reddy at worlded.org
Date: Wed Feb 8 12:26:30 EST 2006
In Massachusetts, the SABES system has become interested in developing
professional development standards for ABE. We see them as a means of
reaching consensus on what we consider high quality professional
development. They would serve as a goal to strive towards and a set of
standards for both internal and external evaluation of our work and our
development efforts. We have started by examining some existing
documents, including the National Staff Development Council standards,
the Pro-Net Professional Development Coordinator Compentencies that Mary
Ann Corley referenced, the AALPD policies, and some standards and
principles from k-12 and ABE in a few other states. We are very
interested in hearing from other states about their work in this area.
Mina
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment] Quality Standards for ProfessionalDevelopment
From: fantine@ohio.edu fantine at ohio.edu
Date: Thu Feb 9 23:53:55 EST 2006
In Ohio we've been grappling with developing PD standards or competencies. We are using mostly the resources others have mentioned. I wanted to share with the group that in planning for our new State Plan, which would be implemented when / if WIA is ever reauthorized, our State ABLE Director formed 8 Task Force groups around various issues, such as Special Needs, Family Literacy,
Technology...that would make recommendations to inform the State Plan. PD was one such group, I attached the recommendations of this PD Task Force. The recommendations that were made are similar to many of the challenges that have been expressed during this discussion, i.e., more alternative delivery options, balancing state needs and program needs, sustaining long-term PD plans, etc. As always, the feasibility of building a comprehensive competency-based PD system with primarily a low-paid, part-time, high-turnaround workforce emerged. How have other states resolved this issue? ...balancing
the need for developing a high-quality, standards-based PD system for a workforce whose majority usually isn't paid very well on a part-time basis?
Jeff Fantine
Director, Literacy Center
College of Education
Ohio University
340 McCracken Hall
Athens, OH 45701
