Schools to Watch

CRITERION: The school devotes resources to content-rich professional development, which is connected to reaching and sustaining the school vision. Professional development is intensive, of high quality, and ongoing.

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Our biggest learning [with professional development] has been that it does not come once in the summer and go away. It keeps coming back and back and back.

Ongoing, Reflective Professional Development

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Professional development has played a significant role in the school's adoption of the Different Ways of Knowing (DWoK) model. Teachers comfortable with their own instructional style had to learn to make connections across content areas and to integrate arts into the curriculum. For some teachers, this was a tremendous challenge and without help, they would not have been successful. Jeff, a physical education teacher, explained that when the school accepted DWoK, he did not see the value of making connections across the curriculum, especially in physical education. He says, "After I went through the summer training, I began to see the importance of making connections across the subjects, including physical education and for everyone in the school to work together to improve student outcomes." The teachers have come to realize that professional development must be ongoing. Principal Pedigo says:

First, our biggest learning [with professional development] has been that it does not come once in the summer and go away. It keeps coming back and back and back. The DWoK model calls for three days in the summer, a follow-up day in the fall and a follow-up day in the spring. We also have a Technical Assistance Coach who comes to our school once a month to meet with teachers during their team planning time. It never goes away, and neither does the required reflection because we come together in teams so often.

Second, professional development occurs during team meetings when teachers plan and reflect together. It is in one team meeting a week that we require this to happen. They may be looking to parallel teach, or they may be planning a full-blown interdisciplinary unit, but they are talking about how concepts fit into a larger focus.

Third, professional development occurs in the content meetings where the teachers come together once a quarter to analyze student progress and to ensure that the standard is being reached for. They help each other grow in these meetings, and they develop new concepts that are content-based.

Fourth, professional development occurs through the individual teacher's growth plan. Everyone in our building is expected to and plans to "grow" each year. That is my philosophy. Quite honestly, I think we grow more across the year, through nudges, conversations, and through lesson planning than we ever do on the professional development days.

Finally, We send teachers to national and state-level conferences. I've seen this do more for teachers' professional development than anything else.

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