A New Vision for Teacher Professional Growth & Support

Posted by on July 08, 2013

A New Vision for Teacher Professional Growth & Support

A new report from Education Resource Strategies challenges school system leaders to expand the traditional definition of teacher professional development to one of Professional Growth and Support, which can include any use of people, time, and money that bolsters improvement of teaching. This can range from time devoted to teacher evaluation debriefs, to the cost of required planning blocks, to salary increments for education credits. The paper urges a more holistic approach to building teaching effectiveness that moves beyond “training” and is integrated into a larger school-improvement strategy. It offers analysis of three different school systems — Duval County, Florida; Washington, DC; and charter network Achievement First — to identify six steps to re-envision teacher professional growth. It recommends that school leaders: quantify current spending on the universe of teacher Professional Growth & Support; capitalize on mandates and growing investments in Common Core State Standards, student assessment systems, and teacher evaluation to create integrated systems; leverage expert support to guide teacher teams in shared instructional content; support growth throughout a teacher’s career by restructuring compensation and career paths; add and optimize time to address organizational priorities as well as individual needs; and overhaul legacy policies and make strategic tradeoffs. The report is accompanied by a series of tools to help districts assess their use of professional development dollars and consider ways to allocate them more effectively.

http://www.erstrategies.org/library/a_new_vision_for_pgs