Providing Powerful Professional Development

In 1995, the National Staff Development Council released Standards for Staff Development. At the time, these standards represented the culmination of what had been learned about professional development that results in positive change in schools. In 2001 the standards were revised. The Desert/Mountain SELPA has used the 2001 standards as the guide by which professional development activities were designed, implemented, and evaluated. In the past ten years, even more has been learned about how professional learning should be designed with powerful results in mind.  In 2011, Learning Forward (the new name for the National Staff Development Council) released the third version of standards designed to summarize the characteristics of powerful professional learning. The 2011 standards are drawn from research and are grounded in evidence-based practice. They describe a set of expectations regarding professional learning that ensures equity and excellence in learning for educators. They are designed to serve as, “indicators that guide the learning, facilitation, implementation, and evaluation of professional learning” (Learning Forward, 2011).  The 2011 Standards for Professional Learning are:

• Learning Communities: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students occurs within learning communities committed to continuous improvement, collective responsibility, and goal alignment.
• Leadership: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students requires skillful leaders who develop capacity, advocate, and create support systems for professional learning.
• Resources: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students requires prioritizing, monitoring, and coordinating resources for educator learning.
• Data: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students uses a variety of sources and types of student, educator, and system data to plan, assess, and evaluate professional learning.
• Learning Designs: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students integrates theories, research, and models of human learning to achieve its intended outcomes.
• Implementation: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students applies research on change and sustains support for implementation of professional learning for long-term change.
• Outcomes: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students aligns its outcomes with educator performance and student curriculum standards (Learning Forward, 2011).

The 2011 Standards for Professional Learning are the construct by which SELPA professional learning opportunities for 2012-13 are designed. The D/M SELPA seeks to create on-going collaborative relationships with the LEAs in the Desert/Mountain region. It is through collaborative relationships, characterized by facilitation of systems change efforts and on-site coaching, that school improvement will occur.

Realizing the current financial realities confronting school districts, the SELPA is committed to partnering with LEAs to reduce the cost of high-quality professional learning for educators. With that in mind, more SELPA professional learning offerings will be offered at school sites and on-line. These trainings are offered at low or no cost to the LEA and are focused on research-based best practices. It is the goals of the Desert/Mountain SELPA that these trainings will be a component of a school-wide or district-wide systemic plan for professional learning that is clearly articulated and focused results for students. U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, states that, “(A)ll work to improve the quality of professional development must begin with one simple assumption: Teaching is an incredibly complex profession that draws on a wide set of intellectual and emotional skills. Even the best teachers need to continue to learn and improve their practice, and many are willing to do so. The bottom line is that all teachers – all educators – grow from professional learning experiences that sharpen their practice” (Duncan, 2011).

Resources:

Duncan, A. (2011). Forge a commitment to authentic professional learning. Learning Forward, 32(4), 70-72.
Learning Forward (2011). Standards for professional learning. Oxford, OH.