Using Data to Identify Professional Development Needs
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Using Data to Identify Professional Development Needs
Hi there,
I like to use state database information to show me which teachers are needing assistance and which teachers are modeling good practices. The database is certainly not a final word, as we all have had groups of students that performed well or poorly regardless of instruction. The data is a good place to show red flags, however. Student assessments and staff self-assessments are also great for predicting professional development needs. Data can also help us see what people groups we are reaching with advertising, and which people groups are not. Then we can create new means of recruitment for our program.
Tina Luffman
Coordinator, Developmental Education
Verde Valley Campus
928-634-6544
tina_luffman@yc.edu
Hi Tina,
Using the data to identify which teachers need help and what is good practice is very intriguing idea. Can you tell us more about that -- what indicators you use, for example?
Larry Condelli
Hi Larry,
Yes, I look at which classes have students with strong attendance records as well as which classes are making their educational gains for NRS reporting purposes. The classes who are keeping the students (retention) as well as those showing that they are learning tend to have teachers using better instructional plans. For example, one semester I had a new teacher who was making great educational gain progress in Reading and Language, but none of the students were coming up in their Math scores. I had to observe the class myself and talk with the teacher to identify where the problem existed, if indeed there was a problem. We did intervention and garnered a few math gains as well by the end of the semester.
We also have student assessments through our college, and these produce indicators as to which teachers are doing great and which are frustrating learning. The better indicator is the teacher self-assessment form where we ask teachers to let us know which items they feel confident in and which they need help in. The purpose of this self-assessment is to let the administrators and coordinators know what professional development activities to prepare for our upcoming staff development day.
Tina Luffman
In addition to the other great ideas discussed yesterday, I'd like to offer an additional way to analyze NRS data on the local level. If you divide the contact hours by the number of enrolled students in each educational functioning level (EFL) on Table 4, you will get a rough idea of how long students in each EFL are staying in class. If you find that students in one of the levels - say beginning literacy - are leaving before they have enough hours to post-test or make a level gain, you may wish to examine further the instructional strategies, curriculum, and professional development needs of staff serving those learners. If the average contact hours are high, but level gains in that EFL are low, once again, a review of assessment, instruction and curriculum may reveal specific professional development needs for your program.
Barbara Hofmeyer
Coaching Consultant for
Indiana DOE, Division of Adult Education
Barbara,
That is a great idea and if you can break it down even further -- by site or class, for example -- you can get even better insights.
Larry Condelli
Tina and Larry,
I do this, too, but I’m also very interested in positive deviance. How is it that some teachers, who work in very challenging settings, are able to produce such significant results? For example, there’s a teacher in our program, let’s call her Miranda, who consistently has high enrollment, wonderful retention and excellent student achievement. I can assign her to ABE/GED, ESL, family literacy, day, evening – it just doesn’t seem to matter. It’s a much harder data collection question, because she thinks she’s doing what everyone else is doing and, ostensibly, she is. What jumps out at me when I visit her class is the sense of community she’s able to build that seems to be based on her belief that her students will accomplish great things.
Sandy Strunk
Program Director for Community Education
Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13
1020 New Holland Avenue
Lancaster, PA 17601
(717) 606-1873
Hi Sandy,
I think you answered your own question. Teachers who create a sense of community are always already more successful at retention. Sometimes it is difficult to put a finger on exactly what that factor is that creates the environment, but a caring instructor is predisposed to generate great results regardless of time of day, demographics of the classroom, or whatever variables are offered.
Tina Luffman
Hi Sandy,
I agree with Tina that by creating a sense of community students feel comfortable and open to risk taking in their learning. I have a transitions to college program that is based on a cohort model. The students take the same classes and build bonds with each other that carry over when they enroll into their college programs. The retention in that program is high, 86%. Kudos to your teachers.
Toni Borge
