Professional Development

Professional development should be designed within a system of teaching and learning that spans an educators’ professional career and should be utilized to positively impact students’ reading achievement.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) formally defines professional development as activities that:

• Are an integral part of school and local educational agency strategies for providing educators—including teachers, principals, other school leaders, specialized instructional support personnel, paraprofessionals, and early childhood educators—with the knowledge and skills necessary to enable students to succeed in a well-rounded education and to meet the challenging state academic standards.
• Are sustained (not stand-alone, one-day, or short term workshops), intensive, collaborative, job-embedded, data-driven, and classroom-focused.

According to leading experts, effective professional development incorporates most, if not all, of the following elements (Darling-Hammond, Hyler, and Gardner, 2017):

• Content-focused. Professional development focuses on teaching strategies associated with specific curriculum content that supports teacher learning within  classroom contexts. There is an intentional focus on discipline-specific curriculum development and pedagogies in areas such as mathematics, science, or literacy.
• Incorporates active learning. Active learning engages teachers directly in designing and trying out teaching strategies, providing them an opportunity to engage in the same style of learning they are designing for their students. Such professional development uses authentic artifacts, interactive activities, and other strategies to provide deeply embedded, highly contextualized professional learning. This approach moves away from traditional learning models and environments that are lecture based and have no direct connection to teachers’ classrooms and students.
• Supports collaboration. High-quality professional development creates space for teachers to share ideas and collaborate in their learning, often in job-embedded contexts. Educators need learning communities to support ongoing implementation issues. By working collaboratively, teachers can create communities that positively change the culture and instruction of their entire grade level, department, school and/or district.
• Uses models of effective practice. Curricular models and modeling of instruction provide teachers with a clear vision of what best practices look like. Teachers may view models that include lesson plans, unit plans, sample student work, observations of peer teachers, and video or written cases of teaching.
• Provides coaching and expert support. Coaching and expert support involve the sharing of expertise about content and evidence-based practices, focused directly on teachers’ individual needs.
• Offers feedback and reflection. High-quality professional learning frequently provides built-in time for teachers to think about, receive input on, and make changes to their practice by facilitating reflection and soliciting feedback. Feedback and reflection both help teachers to thoughtfully move toward the expert visions of practice.