What Have We Learned? Local Systemic Change Initiatives Share Lessons From the Field

author:	Horizon Research, Inc.
published:	02/14/2001
posted to site:	02/14/2001

III. Professional Development Design: Reaching Teachers, Meeting Needs

In this section, we shift the focus from preparing teacher leaders to professional development for targeted teachers. LSCs face enormous challenges in designing professional development for classroom teachers: the diversity of needs, as well as teachers' will and readiness to participate; varying implementation schedules; different instructional materials across districts; different grade levels; entrenched attitudes about who can learn mathematics and science; and often a culture that inhibits collaboration. Working within these constraints, LSCs must balance attention to content, pedagogy, and instructional materials, while ensuring that professional development meets teachers' real and perceived needs. Reform leaders must also find ways to structure professional development to encourage broad participation, creating the "maximum number of opportunities for teachers to decide" to attend. At the same time, LSCs must attend to equity issues in the design, and create a professional development culture in which continuous learning and improvement are valued.

A. Structuring Professional Development Activities

Be deliberate in choosing professional development approaches.

LSCs run the risk of limiting their professional development design to what they know best. That is, many begin their project with prior experiences in teacher enhancement - primarily workshops and institutes offered centrally. Armed with this expertise, reform leaders look to these same formats for LSC professional development. Clearly, a centralized approach facilitates quality control. Project leaders also noted that summer and school- year institutes are an efficient way to reach large numbers of teachers, and that the "immersion" experience over a period of days helps create an "intense support system" and learning community. However, centralized venues can present challenges in providing opportunities for extended discussion and reflection, or in offering experiences that move participants beyond an "awareness level" on content, pedagogy, and instructional materials. Other formats, such as school- based meetings, grade- level study groups, and coaching may be more appropriate for these purposes. LSCs need to reflect on the strengths and limitations of different professional development approaches, consider a range of options, and make design choices based on teacher needs and program goals, rather than primarily on the background of project staff.

LSCs also need to consider how best to "roll out" the professional development. Some projects choose to involve all of the teachers from the beginning, with the idea of providing both formal professional development and opportunities for practice over the duration of the project. Others have found it more feasible to start with a subset of the teachers, either working "a school at a time" or starting with one or two grade levels throughout the project and expanding to other grades in subsequent years.

Evolving views on the balance and sequence of professional development

Some PIs noted an evolution in their thinking about the balance and sequence of centralized professional development and school- based follow- up activities. In hindsight, one PI noted that the project should have started out with grade- level professional development both within and across schools, rather than the centralized focus that was initially chosen. LSCs found that school- based professional development was more effective in achieving teacher ownership and in ensuring that the push for reform came from within the school building.

A conference participant concurred about a shift in the balance and sequence of professional development activities, although for different reasons: "While we frontloaded professional development before the initial implementation with an eight- day institute, we are beginning to believe that more follow- up and less introductory professional development might be a more effective balance. Teachers bring deeper, less mechanistic questions - about both content and pedagogy - after attempted implementation."

Have a plan, but be responsive to feedback and changing context.

While LSCs need to be deliberate in designing their professional development, they also need to be responsive and flexible. Said one PI: "People saw that we were listening to them and trying to give them what they wanted. That encouraged them to come back." LSCs must also be aware of the ever- changing district context in designing professional development. Projects that had anticipated neither high levels of teacher turnover and mobility, nor the influx of beginning teachers to the project, had to quickly devise a plan for dealing with these realities. Required to shift focus, they found their resources for more advanced workshops substantially reduced, due to the need for additional introductory sessions to meet the needs of newcomers. The lesson was implicit: expect turnover, and build a strategy for new teachers into the design from the beginning.

The best laid plans...
responding to changing contexts

One LSC initially required all teachers in cohorts of schools to complete 100 hours of professional development over two years: 24 university- based hours during the summer and the remainder after school during the school year. A year into the project, the district extended the school day until 5: 00 p. m., and added summer school so that teachers had only one week off. The result of these policies? Teachers couldn't come to after- school LSC meetings, they wouldn't come on Saturday, and they couldn't come during the summer. The LSC had to shift its design to a classroom- based approach, and use release days in the fall and spring to reach the targeted teachers.

Take professional development into the schools.

LSCs asserted that site- based professional development is an essential element of successful reform. Echoing the comments of several PIs, one person noted: "School is where change occurs - that's the arena for achieving critical mass." Like teacher leaders, "regular" classroom teachers need time and multiple formats to learn, practice, and reflect on content and pedagogy. School- based professional development can provide these kinds of opportunities, allowing LSCs to tailor activities to the needs of each school and enabling schools to be partners in the process. On- site small group sessions can help teachers to articulate, synthesize, and explore what they are learning about content and pedagogy. Further, school- based professional development takes teachers out of isolation, and promotes dialogue over time with a cross- section of teachers - "typical," resistant, beginning, and teachers of other subjects. And in schools with particularly needy or unreceptive teachers, school- based professional development can provide a means for core staff to cultivate supportive relationships with teachers.

Taking teachers out of isolation

"Thinking about the summer professional development versus the school- year follow- up, it seems like teachers had more growth in the follow- up. It helped them to take ownership of their own improvement. I don't care what you call it-- action research, study groups, or critical friends group, but the focus is on teacher ownership, teacher collegiality, and looking at continuous improvement, using data, looking at student work, and trying to teach differently. There just has to be that year- long piece. But you have to have a facilitator, there has to be an agenda, you can't just say, 'We're going to meet. What do you want to talk about? ' You have to have specific goals and someone to facilitate." - PI Interview

"Teachers generally feel isolated and kit clubs really helped. It's important for there to be an agenda for the meeting facilitated by a kit specialist, and the agenda must be responsive to users' needs. But it's also important to provide opportunities for free discussion." - Conference Participant

Provide tools to boost the quality of site- based professional development.

Even under the best of circumstances, accountability and quality control remain huge challenges in site- based professional development. Tools that promote high quality, replicable professional development can help ensure consistency and quality. Some LSCs recommended creating documents that clarify reform vision, goals, standards, and instructional materials. Scripts or protocols help ensure that site- based discussions remain firmly centered on content and pedagogy, and less on mechanics and logistics. In one project, core staff kept detailed descriptions of professional development plans and activities, and from these, created a notebook describing the goals and rationale behind professional development. These kinds of tools have proven valuable for those charged with facilitating and monitoring site- based professional development.