Teacher Quality and Professional Development

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Teacher Quality and Professional Development

• Region VII Schoolwide Institute
• Creating a Culture of Achievement
• May 11, 2004

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What we want to accomplish

• To create an understanding of how Kansas defines
  Highly Qualified Teachers
• To share Kansas professional development model
• To expand the conversation around the qualities
  and components of high quality professional
  development for the 21st century

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Our Learning Today

• Plan for this session
• Reflection
• Inquiry
• Dialogue

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No Child Left Behind and Teacher Quality

• Federal level - NCLB defines what it means to be
  a highly qualified teacher
• State level - States can add to this minimum
  requirement
• Local level District leaders, principals, and
  teachers decide what makes a highly effective
  teacher, in addition to highly qualified

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Subject Matter is important

• Good teachersneed to know deeplythe subject
  they teach
• You cant teach what you dont know well.
• -Sandra Feldman, President of the American
  Federation of Teachers

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Teacher Quality
Teacher quality is the single most important
factor in determining the success of children in
school, more than race, poverty, or any other
outside influence.
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Effect of Home and School Support
Snow, Catherine. (1991). Unfulfilled
Expectations. Percentage of Children Who Achieve
Success With Varying Levels of Home and
Classroom Support High Home Support Low Home
Support
High Classroom Support 100 100 Mixed
Classroom Support 100 25 Low Classroom
Support 60 0
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Good Teaching Matters.Sanders, W. Rivers. J.
(1996).
A bad teacher for one year hurts. A bad teacher
for two years puts students in jeopardy.
Study shows that fifty elementary students who
had three years of teachers evaluated as
ineffective score 54 to 60 lower in
achievement.
Effects carried forward for two years. Effect is
cumulative and residual. It affects the future
of the students. November 1996, University of
Tennessee, Value-Added Research and Assessment
Center.
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How Kansas made Highly Qualified Teacher
decisions

• Consulted with Kansas Master teachers and
  National Board teachers
• Determined we did not want veteran teachers to
  have to take a test.

• Development of a rubric to determine content
  knowledge based on their assignment
• USDE came out and provided input

• Rubric underwent several stages of revisions

• Determined the process and how the rubric
• would be used

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Challenges

• Gathering the Data
• Teachers Fears

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Highly Qualified Process

• Teachers received licenses after 1982
• KSBE approved individual programs
• Based on standards and had a connection to
  national standards
• Certified Personnel Review Committee
• Nationally Board Certified Teachers
• All other teachers had to complete the Kansas
  Content Area Rubric

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The Rubric How it works

• It was applied only to those who received their
  license prior to 1982.
• Hold a bachelors degree from an accredited
  institution of higher education
• Hold a valid standard Kansas teaching certificate
• Plus one of the following
• Hold National Board Certification in the content
  area of the teaching assignment
• Achieve 100 points on the Kansas Content Area
  Rubric

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Kansas Content Area Rubric

• Teachers targeted from the Certified Personnel
• Report must complete the rubric.
• Years of experience
• College level coursework
• Activities related to the Content Area
• Service to the Content Area
• Awards, Presentations, Publications in the
  Content Area

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Kansas Highly Qualified Teacher Data

• 34,000 Kansas Teachers
• 7,000 rubrics distributed
• 6,500 estimated as HQT using the rubric
• 500 teachers not HQ needing plans

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Highly Qualified Plans

• Provisionals
• Coursework
• Follow-up Assignment Check

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Highly Qualified Coursework

• Online courses through various institutions
• Summer classes at IHE
• KSDE sponsored Academies in major content areas
  located throughout the state

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Kansas Professional Development Program

• A Comprehensive Guide to Quality Professional
  Development
• Creating a Culture of Achievement

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School Results-Based Staff Development Plan
District Professional Development Plan
Individual Professional Development Plan
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A Foundation for Planning Quality Staff
Development

Leadership
Strategies
Needs
Standards
Goals
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Standards
1. National Staff Development Councils revised
Standards for Staff Development
2. Kansas Professional Education Standards
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Leadership

• The Kansas Legislature
• The State Board of Education
• Individual Schools
• Local Professional Development Council
• Licensed Professionals

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Needs Assessment
1. Gauge where the school/district is in
relation to each of the standards.
2. Dont speculate, use specific evidence that
have been directly observed or documented.
3. Once the rubric is completed, consider what
needs to be done to move to the next level.
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Needs Assessment Student Performance
Data
Student Targets or Goals based on State
Curriculum Standards
Actual Student Performance
Identified Student Learning Gaps
Actual Staff Skills
Identified Staff Development Needs
Staff Skills Needed to close Student Learning Gaps
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Goals
Improved student/staff/teacher learning
identified and written using SMART goals.
Specific, Measurable, Attainable Results-oriented
and, Time-bound
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SMART GOAL
At High Hill Elementary School our students will
perform at or above the proficient level on the
Kansas Mathematics Assessment at all grade levels
in which the assessment is given.
At Fairfax Middle School 70 of our students will
perform at or above the proficient level on the
Kansas State Reading Assessment at all grade
levels in which the assessment is given by spring
2005.
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Student Learning SMART GOALSJan ONeil
of Quality Leadership by Design
Goals
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Staff Development SMART GoalsJan ONeil
of Leadership by Design
Goals
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Professional Development Strategies
Strategies

• Tools of support used by professional development
  councils to support staff in reaching the
  identified staff development goals.

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Strategies
Staff Development
Focused on Student Learning
See reg. 91-1-216
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Post-It Activity
Collaborate with those around you and create
model chart of your current staff development
system.

• What staff development activities have we
  traditionally done in our schools?
• Are there activities indicated on the chart that
  we havent considered as staff development? Why?
• Do we think of staff development as a system
  within our school/district?

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Professional Ed Standards
Content
Service to Profession
Knowledge
Application
Impact
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School Results-Based Staff Development Plan
District Professional Development Plan
Individual Professional Development Plan
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Traditional Approaches
For many years, professional development was
thought of only in terms of formal education
activities, such as courses or workshops. Several
times a year, school administrators would release
students for a half or full day so faculty could
attend professional development programs that may
or may not be relevant to teachers' professional
development needs. - Brian Sullivan
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Beyond the Rock and the Hard Place Craig Jerald

• Scattershot Curriculum, Unequal Expectations
• The pass down
• Some do and some dont
• Delivery vs. Content
• Good teaching
• Dallas Story (test scores and attitude)
• Never worked in another system

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Beyond the Rock and the Hard Place Craig Jerald

• Districts and schools Must Take the Lead
• Develop a Common Curriculum
• Learn from Student Assessment Data
• Create a Culture of problem Solving

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Make a connection!
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A Plea for Strong Practice

• NCLBs Design Flaws
• Overinvestment in testing, under-investment in
  capacity building
• Ungrounded theories of improvement
• Weak knowledge about how to turn around failing
  schools
• Perverse incentive for quality and performance
• Policymaking by remote control
• Richard Elmore

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A Plea for Strong Practice

• Who Inherits NCLBs Problems?
• Superintendents
• Principals
• Teachers
• Eventually students and parents
• Richard Elmore

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A Plea for Strong Practice

• What Can Educators Do?
• Internal accountability precedes external
  accountability
• Improvement is a developmental process that
  proceeds in stages it is not a linear process
• Leadership is a cultural practice
• Powerful leadership is distributed because the
  work of instructional improvement is distributed
• Knowledge is not necessarily where you think it
  is
• The task of developing powerful theories of
  school improvement is urgent

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Make a Connection!
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Traditional Approaches

• 12 percent of the teachers report that
  professional development activities helped
  improve classroom teaching a lot
• 80 percent report that these activities helped
  only moderately or somewhat (NCES, 1999).
• typically lack connection to the challenges
  teachers face in their classrooms
• usually provide only short-term results

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Scenario Building
Purposeful
One size fits all Purposeful
Purposeful Customized
Organizational
I
II
Delivery
Delivery
One size fits all
Customized
III
IV
Organizational
Random One size fits all
Customized Random
Random
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Scenario Building
Delivery System
III
Random One size fits all
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Scenario Building
Purposeful Customized
I
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• What Has Become Clear to you at this point?

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More Than Traditional Approaches

• Unless professional development programs are
  carefully designed and implemented to provide
  continuity between what teachers learn and what
  goes on in their classrooms and schools, these
  activities are not likely to produce any
  long-lasting effects on either teacher competence
  or student outcomes. -Fullan with Steigelbauer,
  1991

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More Than Traditional Approaches

• "Staff development not only must affect the
  knowledge, attitudes, and practices of individual
  teachers, administrators, and other school
  employees, but it also must alter the cultures
  and structures of the organizations in which
  those individuals work" Dennis Sparks and
  Stephanie Hirsh (1997, pp. 12) of the National
  Staff Development Council (NSDC).

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More Than Traditional Thinking

• Internal accountability precedes external
  accountability.
• Improvement is a developmental process that
  proceeds in stages it is not a linear process.
• Leadership is a cultural practice.

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More Than Traditional Thinking

• Powerful leadership is distributed because the
  work of instructional improvement is distributed.
  
• Knowledge is not necessarily where you think it
  is.
• The task of developing powerful theories of
  school improvement is urgent.

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3 Key Components to Professional Development

• Coherent
• Researched-based
• Capacity-building
• by Claudette Rasmussen, Susan Hopkins and Michele
  Fitzpatrick

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3 Essential Qualities For Professional Development

• Results-driven
• Standards-based
• Focused on daily work
• by Stephanie Hirsh

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Good Professional Development Practices

• "are student driven, provide learning outcomes,
  are standards based, and provide an environment
  for student learning." Dennis Sparks

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High Quality Professional Development (Procedures)

• Leading
• Supporting
• Planning
• Implementing
• Monitoring
• Sustaining
• by John Edward Porter

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A Measure of Capacity

• School Survey for Professional Development
  Capacity
• John Edward Porter

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The only power we really have is to change the
conversation. Patrick Dolan
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2003-2004 Kansas Professional Development Program
Guidelines
The 2003-2004 Kansas Professional Development
Program Guidelines document is posted on the KSDE
web www.ksde.org. Go to News/Hot Topics and
scroll down to The New Kansas Licensure System
and the Kansas Professional Development
Program. Sue King email sking_at_ksde.org Mark
McBeth email mmcbeth_at_ksde.org