Professional Development Model

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In the 21st century, students must have have the complex skills needed to be innovative, collaborative, complex problem solvers, effective communicators, and self-directed (Darling-Hammond, Hyler, & Gardner, 2017). In order to provide students with the tools they need to be successful in the 21st century, teachers need professional development to learn new skills, content, and pedagogy. Professional develop provides teachers with an opportunity to grow and develop as a professional and improve student learning. In order to leverage professional development and improve student learning, districts need a strategic and effective professional development plan (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017; Odden, 2011). This paper aims to outline a professional …show more content…

According to Darling-Hammond et al. (2017), effective professional development should be content focused, incorporate active learning, foster collaboration, utilize best practices, offer mentoring, provide the opportunity for feedback and reflection, and take place over a sustained period of time. This type of professional development can be provided in-house, outsourced to another organization, or by attending conferences.
To provide effective, in-house professional development a district must start by training a group of expert teachers to be curriculum specialists that facilitates training and provides mentor support (Odden, 2011). Once the expert teachers have been trained, the district must create a cohesive, long-term plan that allows the training and mentorship provided by the curriculum specialists to be cohesive and aligned to the district's vision and mission for professional development. The long-term plan should include the number of training days offered, topics covered, and mentorship to support the implementation of the new strategies. To determine if the professional development is effective, the curriculum specialists should collect data via surveys at the end of training, observation notes during classroom visits, and analysis of student …show more content…

To ensure money is set aside to compensate for professional development, districts and schools must include professional development on the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) and School Site Plans. This means the district and school sites must have a long-term plan to support professional development and include compensation in the district and school site budgets prior to the start of the school year. For in-house professional development, the budget and compensation plan must include salaries and benefits for the curriculum specialists, materials and supplies to facilitate the training, and substitute coverage for the teachers to attend the training. For professional development that is outsourced, the budget and compensation plan must include registration, travel, mileage, hotel, food, and substitute coverage. Since all types of professional development require some level of compensation, it will be necessary to estimate the cost and obtain approval, prior to the event, to ensure the budget can accommodate the request (see Appendix

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