Districtwide Professional Development

Background

"Professional development" is the process of ensuring that professionals are constantly learning techniques and information about how to better their skills in their jobs. In education, professional development often takes on the form of attending workshops or seminars. Within the last decade, professional development techniques have focused more on job-embedded development and continuous learning. In an attempt to guarantee that principals, superintendents, and teachers are engaged in professional development, school districts often require individual schools to implement a professional development plan. Some schools meet this objective well, while others do not. To ensure quality professional development for all, many school districts, instead of requiring schools to create their own plan, create a district-wide plan for their schools to implement.

Benefits

District-wide professional development is a way to guarantee there is a professional development plan in place that schools can follow. Furthermore, one plan that is utilized by all the schools in the district helps ensure uniformity and consistency. From this, the district can keep statistics and measure the effectiveness of the professional development plan. Finally, if implemented on a district level, the professional development plan can avoid the pitfalls of local school politics and ensure long-term professional growth.

Examples

Broward County Public School District in Florida is one such district that implements and utilizes a district-wide professional development plan. This district's professional development program, Professional Pathways, ensures that staff development is long-term, based on research, relates to school improvement, and addresses both student and teacher needs. The plan is well designed with a large system support, effective leadership, an evaluation system for feedback and reform, and a willingness to use outside consultants, the extensive community, and parent involvement.

Overall, implementing a district-wide professional development plan is one way to ensure that educators are constantly receiving the professional attention and growth they need in order to do their job even better.

Related Links

Click a category to toggle display of related links.

What Is It?

New American Schools Publishes New Guide For School Districts on How to Improve Professional Development

New American Schools has just released its latest booklet, Strategies for Improving Professional Development: A Guide for School Districts, written by Dr. M. Bruce Haslam and Dr. Colleen P. Seremet, which focuses on how school districts can review current professional development programs and policies and realign them into a coherent system that works best in their districts.
Tools & Resources

Blueprints: A Practical Toolkit for Designing and Facilitating Professional Development

This toolkit provides scenarios, activities, group processes templates and resources to help novice and experienced professional development facilitators alike design and facilitate effective professional development. (From CD-ROM and accompanying web site (2003). North Central Regional Educational Laboratory)

Design Your Professional Development Program

This web tool hosts a professional development survey for schools and districts, a professional development plan template, resources on successful professional development programs and activities, and contact information for ASCD expert trainers and consultants that provide on-site support. (From Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development)

Design Your Professional Development Program: Where to Start

If you’re planning a comprehensive professional development program for your school or district, this web-page lists some important things to keep in mind. (From Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development)

Leadership Academy Manual

This manual provides a practical guide to encourage urban schools and districts to design their own leadership academies as a strategy for building more inclusive schools and communities. The manual was developed out of the National Institute's work with more than 80 leadership academies in school districts across the country. The manual is free and includes guidelines for hosting a leadership academy, as well as activities and handouts that address improving education, creating building leadership teams, mining school data, and teaching diverse learners. (From National Institute for Urban School Improvement, 2003.)

Professional Development: Learning From the Best

This toolkit provides very detailed information about designing, implementing, and evaluating professional development programs. (From NCREL)

Step by Step: Creating a Professional Development Plan

The National Clearinghouse for Comprehensive School Reform (NCCSR) has a valuable list of tools/resources focused on professional development planning. According to the site, the "resources aim to help schools and districts to continuously consider their professional development needs, understand the components of a professional development planning process, and create a plan that incorporates professional development opportunities into their overall school improvement efforts."

Tools for School-Improvement Planning

While "larger" than professional development planning, this helpful website contains observation protocols, focus group samples and questions, surveys, questionnaires, and other techniques to help you examine your specific school-improvement concerns. In the tools section, you'll find a database of new and innovative tools used throughout the country, organized into school-improvement focus areas common to many schools, districts, and states. In addition to numerous proven tools, this site features two other essentials for school improvement, including a school-improvement guide with a step-by-step process for successful school improvement, including sample worksheets and rubrics. In the "Using Data" section, you'll find resources on using data -- a key to sustained improvement: types and uses of data, selecting and analyzing data, and using results to drive your planning efforts. (From A Project of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform)

Turning Around Schools

The National Governors Association has prepared a guide that describes strategies for turning around low-performing schools and highlights best practices in states, districts and schools. One of the key principles they have identified is that "capacity-building must be part of the solution." (From National Governors Association, 2003.)
Model Programs

Broward County Public School District, Florida

This district's professional development program, Professional Pathways, ensures that staff development is long-term, based on research, relates to school improvement, and addresses both student and teacher needs. The plan is well designed with large system support, effective leadership, a willingness to use outside consultants, extensive community and parent involvement, and an evaluation system for feedback and reform. (From United States Government)

Children Achieving: Component IV—Professional Development

This document, specific to the School District of Philadelphia, may be used as a model by other schools to help them develop a district-wide professional development plan. As the capacity of its staff is the key to the District's ability to fulfill its mission, the District must redesign its participation in the preparation and ongoing growth opportunities for its staff. (From School District of Philadelphia)

Districtwide Professional Development

A search for district professional development plans lead to this web-page. From this web-page, educators can access 8 different success stories about districts who implemented professional development plans.

Edmonds School District: Lynnwood, Washington

Edmonds School District has a history of collaborative professional development that involves staff in planning, implementing, and decision-making. The Edmonds Professional Development Program (EPDP) addresses both district-wide and building goals while offering opportunities for individual professional growth.

Grounded In Research

In Alabama, a district wide Professional Development Planning Council was created. The council crafted a set of eight principles, rooted in NSDC’s Standards for Staff Development, for effective staff development which schools are to follow. This article goes on to discuss evaluation, job-embedded staff development, and online surveying. (From Journal of Staff Development)

Iowa Professional Development Model

The state of Iowa has created a model for professional development to work in conjunction with the No Child Left Behind Act. The model was created through a joint effort of the Iowa Department of Education, area education agencies (AEAs), professional organizations, local education agencies (LEAs), higher education, and other providers of professional development. The model is embedded in a school improvement environment and follows an action research framework. (From Iowa Department of Education. 2002.)

Lawrence, Kansas School District: Profile of Award-Winning Professional Development

This article describes 3 critical factors in the school district that lead to the creation of a professional development plan. The next section of the article discusses the framework for this professional development model and four components key to its success.

Rural School Leadership in the Deep South: A Framework for Professional Development

The result of a meeting of rural school leaders, this paper outlines the features of a practitioner-led, research oriented professional development plan to strengthen district capacity to meet the critical challenges and opportunities of rural school leadership. (From Doris Terry Williams and Jereann King. The Rural School and Community Trust. 2003.)
Selected Research & Articles

Best Practice in Education Leadership Preparation Programs

Written in Oregon, this paper hopes to stimulate conversation between university education leadership preparation programs and state policy makers on the topics of what is important in preparing and supporting school administrators. The paper identifies and reviews the research on best practice in educational leadership preparation and continuing professional development programs. In the paper, seven key areas are discussed and explored: program philosophy and design; recruitment and selection; curriculum; instruction/delivery systems; internships/practicum; program evaluation; and professional development. It is a useful document to consider in the design of principal development programs. (From Tom Chenoweth, Carolyn Carr and Tom Ruhl. Paper presented at the Administrator Licensure Planning Forum in Oregon on August 19. 2002. SAELP.)

Beyond Islands of Excellence: What Districts Can Do to Improve Instruction and Achievement in All Schools

This report outlines lessons from five districts and identifies practical steps that school districts can take (including provision of quality professional development) to attain success across the entire system. The districts were selected based on their ability to exhibit at least three years of improvement in student achievement in mathematics and/or reading across multiple grades and across all races and ethnicities. To access the report. you must register. Registration is free. (From Learning First Alliance. 2003.)

Improving Teaching and Learning by Improving School Leadership

During the past decade, numerous states, localities, and foundations have launched initiatives to recruit and train better principals. What these efforts share is a recognition that school leaders exert a powerful, if indirect, influence on teaching quality and student learning. Although many have sought to take on the leadership issue, few have detailed the steps that states can take to reform their systems of leadership development. To improve the system of preparing and developing principals, this policy brief recommends that governors and other state policymakers should focus on three key areas—licensure, preparation, and professional development. The brief outlines steps that these stakeholder should take to improve school leadership. (From Christopher Mazzeo, National Governors Association. September 2003.)

Leading for Learning Sourcebook: Restructuring School District Leadership

Drawing on the knowledge and field experiences of more than 300 educators, this report shows that leaders can be more effective when they work to improve student learning, enhance professional learning, and build systemwide supports for all participants' learning. The report details five ways in which school and district leaders can advance these three agendas, including (2) building communities of professionals who value and support learning and (5) establishing incentives and opportunities so that leadership for learning may be shared and developed in others. (From Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy. February 2003.)

Putting Comprehensive Staff Development on Target

An effective staff development plan cannot be written separately from a district or school improvement plan. Instead, professional development functions most effectively when it is embedded into the district or school plan and is seen as the primary strategy for achieving district or school goals. This article offers seven guidelines to develop and implement effective professional development action plans that work together effectively to produce the intended results. (From Stephanie Hirsh. Journal of Staff Development, Winter 2004 (Vol. 25, No. 1))

Scaling Up Urban School Reform: The Elizabeth Story

The Superintendent of Elizabeth School District asked the Laboratory for Student Success (LSS) at Temple University staff to assist the district in planning and implementing a district-wide professional development program focusing on: (a) what research and practice have shown to work in achieving significant improvements in student learning, and (b) how to bring this knowledge to bear in making informed decisions about which model programs will best meet the particular needs of each school as a part of the Abbott Decision.

The Delivery, Financing and Assessment of Professional Development in Education: Pre-Service Preparation and In-Service Training.

The context in which professional development is delivered and financed has changed significantly in the last few years, but there remains a disjuncture between discussions in policy and research circles and what is actually taking place in the field. The purpose of this guide is to provide information to those who are called upon to make decisions that affect training and professional development in education but who do not necessarily have a complete understanding of how the process currently operates and the debates in which the field is currently engaged. This guide is the first publication of The Finance Project's Collaborative Initiative on Financing Professional Development. A primary goal of the Initiative is to develop a framework and tools to allow districts and states to determine the cost-effectiveness of their investments in professional development. The Initiative's work includes development of a website to be launched in March 2004, www.financingpd.org, to provide a wide array of information useful to practitioners, policy makers, and researchers regarding financing professional development in education. (From Katherine S. Neville and Casey J. Robinson. The Finance Project. 2004.)

The Principal Internship: How Can We Get It Right?

The report includes the recommendation that "[l]ocal school districts must take on new responsibilities for recruiting aspiring leaders support and conditions necessary for them to succeed in the preparation program." (From Betty Fry, Gene Bottoms and Kathy O’Neill, Southern Regional Education Board)

What School Districts Spend on Professional Development

Drawing from data gathered in 1992, 1995, and 1998 by two national surveys of public school districts, this brief reveals district expenditure patterns on professional development. (From Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy)