Assignment 1: Professional Development Philosophy Audit

by Ewing Coleman Green EDD 8114 CRN 51114

Professional Development

Nova Southeastern University June 5, 2014

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Professional Development Philosophy Audit

This paper is to provide an audit of the professional development processes at the

author’s school. The paper is comprised of eight sections including a definition of professional

development, an introduction which describes both the context and the mission of the school,

professional development processes, an evaluation of the congruence between school mission

and professional development processes, an evaluation of the congruence between professional

development processes and the National Staff Development Council (NSDC) standards,

literature review, assessment of exemplary practices and areas for improvement, and conclusion.

Definition of Professional Development

The author believes it is important at the outset to define the term ‘professional

development’ as it frames both the course and the current assignment. As the author included in

his Discussion 1 post in Blackboard, NSDC (n.d.) argued that professional development means

“a comprehensive, sustained, and intensive approach to teachers’ and principals’ effectiveness in

raising student achievement.” While a reader could interpret the last three words through a

United States public school centric lens, with a focus on raising high stakes standardized testing

results, this author more broadly applies ‘student achievement’ as those outcomes consistent with

a school’s mission.

Therefore, the author suggests the term professional development means any staff

learning engagement intended to build teacher capacity to improve student learning and

development. This clearly extends well beyond workshops and lectures, and encompasses

ongoing professional capacity building structures such as professional learning communities,

where sharing of best practices, continuous improvement, and a focus on student learning

prevails.

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Introduction

The author currently works at an independent American curriculum-based international

kindergarten-Grade 12 (K-12) school located in a large city in mainland China. The school shall

be called International School of China (ISC). The school serves over 3,000 students from

expatriate families composed of over 40 different nationalities. The major family nationalities

are American (45%), South Korean (14%), Canadian (8%), Taiwanese (7%), and Singaporean

(4%). Of the American nationality, the majority are Chinese American. Ninety-eight percent of

students matriculate to universities over 15 countries around the world with the majority being in

the United States. The major teacher nationalities are American (54%), Canadian (15%), Chinese

(9%), New Zealander (7%), and Australian (5%). Teaching staff qualifications are 64%

bachelor’s, 34% master’s, and 2% doctoral degrees. In addition to students having a variety of

learning styles, given the predominant Asian-Western culture of the school, a broad spectrum of

cultural norms are evident in the learning environment.

The middle school, where the author serves as a mathematics teacher and professional

learning community (PLC) team leader, operates along a distributed leadership model led by a

capable principal and vice-principal pair. These two leaders facilitate a leadership team, on

which the author is a standing member, that provides strategic direction to the division and

empowers the grade-level learning community teams to implement the curriculum, design

holistic student development Advisory program engagements, and manage the daily schedule.

Learning community teams operate with significant latitude and autonomy.

The Grade 8 learning community which the author leads is comprised of 80 students,

ages 13-14, and five other educators: Social Studies, Science, Language Arts, English as an

Additional Language, and Orchestra teachers. This team meets four times a week to plan

curriculum implementation, collaboratively design upcoming Advisory program engagements,

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design the daily schedule to accommodate all elements, and make ongoing adjustments per

ongoing administrative initiatives. In addition, the team discusses individual student needs and

issues, and gets together every two weeks with the counselor and Academic Support Specialist

for Students of Concern meetings. The author and counselor co-chair these meetings.

ISC recently completed a mission and strategic plan updating cycle. DuFour and Eaker

(1998) stated that “mission establishes and organization’s purpose” and vision “instills an

organization with a sense of direction” (p. 62). They emphasized, “it is difficult to overstate the

importance of collective vision in the establishment of a learning organization” (p. 63).

It was also decided early on that in order to capture as much input from school

constituents as possible, the school would host multiple World Café (n.d.) sessions and invite all

parents, staff, teachers, and students who were interested in participating. World Café (n.d.)

sessions involve five components: setting, welcome and introduction, small group rounds,

questions, and harvest. The author attended one such World Café and found it to be an extremely

well organized, effective method of gathering input from multiple school constituents. The

multiple small group dialogue sessions were candid and focused on student development needs

in the 21st century. Senior administrators collected artifacts from the discussions across all

sessions and reported progress to the entire school community on a regular basis.

The author volunteered to serve on the Measurement Team which was tasked with

identifying methodologies that would measure mission implementation progress over time and

the extent of the new school mission attainment. At the first weekend Measurement Team

meeting, the Transformation Systems Limited (TSL) consultant led the team through get-to-

know-you protocols and reviewed the TSL (n.d.) four dynamic stages in the transformation

process, such as occurs in mission development and strategic planning. Those four stages are

readiness for transformation, planning for transformation, creating transformation, and learning

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and adjusting. Based on the author’s experience, he was most heavily involved in stage 2,

planning for transformation. The Measurement Team was comprised of one Board of Directors

member, teachers and administrators, but no students.

The consultant then shared the new school mission statement, strategic objectives and

core values (see Appendix A), written by the Core Planning Team after reviewing World Café

data. The Measurement Team then set about the task, over multiple weekends, of writing a

graduating high school student rubric which would capture all key elements of the new school

mission and could be used as an exemplar by other divisions (middle and elementary schools) for

subsequently writing age-appropriate language. The rubrics would be used as a student self-

assessment tool over time to measure progress against and attainment of the new school mission.

The graduating high school student mission self-assessment rubric, developed by the

Measurement Team after many hours of collaboration, is included below as Appendix B.

Since the above mission development work was completed the school has gone well

beyond just promoting the mission in school publications. Since it was organically designed with

wide community engagement, integrating the mission language into the vocabulary of discourse

and into the curriculum has been quick and effective. Grade levels PLCs are designing Advisory

classes and Exploratory offerings built on the mission, and administration is centering assemblies

on highlighting exemplars of the mission in action.

In addition, the Curriculum Development staff, who oversee professional development at

the school, have spearheaded a taskforce on ensuring students are prepared for 21st century

workforce demands, and this led to the development of Project NOW and the guiding wheel

(Appendix C). The beginning of year whole-school professional development day, called School

on a Mission (SOAM), was devoted to advancing mission elements throughout the school’s

curriculum.

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Professional Development Processes

ISC enjoys a highly collaborative culture, PLC structures in the middle school, dedicated

professional staff practically unanimous in embracing a continuous improvement philosophy,

and generous annual school professional development funding. Lines tend to be long at

international recruiting fairs as the school seems to have an excellent reputation and attracts wide

interest. Most staff openly discuss how fortunate they feel to work at a school that is so serious

about delivering educational excellence and never resting on its laurels. While some feel that the

pressure and workload can be daunting, many find upon reflection that they derive significant

professional growth from working at the school.

Professional development at the school can be viewed through four lenses: school-wide

initiatives, professional practice capacity building, annual evaluation, and ongoing development

at the PLC level. The author has worked at the school for nine years and has been heavily

involved in all four components.

Relative to school-wide initiatives, as stated above ISC went through a highly inclusive,

thoughtful process in creating its new mission. School leaders are generally very intentional

about invoking mission language as guiding philosophy and using it as a screen through which to

evaluate options and make decisions. The author witnesses this regularly in his role as middle

school leadership team member. In addition, the school has formed a variety of task forces over

the years depending on opportunities that school leadership believes need to be embraced. For

example, the author served on a school-wide assessment task force which sought to gather

leading research and best practices across formative and summative assessment. From that work,

a comprehensive manual that was developed, and due to extensive follow-up training with all

faculty, formative assessment practices have been deeply embedded into the curriculum across

the school.

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Curriculum development directors and senior leaders at the school sought to

operationalize elements of the school mission and created what is called Project NOW and

visualized through its wheel (Appendix C). At the annual pre-service days last August all staff

attended School on A Mission (SOAM) sessions which were designed from the Project NOW

wheel. The wheel, and several initiatives currently underway at ISC middle school, were derived

from leading global organizations such as Partnership for 21st Century Learning for their four C’s

(n.d.), Stanford University’s design thinking school (n.d.), and Buck Institute for Education on

project-based learning (n.d.).

Secondly, ISC has several facets for building professional practice capacity which are

relatively formalized. In 2008, the then high school principal started a blended master’s degree

program with Plymouth State University (PSU) where staff could earn a master’s degree via

courses offered on ISC’s campus and online. This program has been significantly embraced as

evidenced by the approximately 40 staff enrolled at any one time and the approximately 10 who

complete the program annually. The program has enjoyed success due to its proven quality,

word-of-mouth marketing on campus, higher salary scale for teachers with a master’s degree,

and financial support of staff.

This financial support is in the form of a $2,000 discretionary budget given annually to

each teacher for the purposes of advancing their professional capability. Teachers enjoy wide

latitude on using the funds and must only seek principal approval and document how the

engagement will benefit their practice and/or student learning. Many staff deploy these funds

toward the PSU master’s program, seek international teaching certification through the Teacher’s

Training Center (n.d.), or attend regional conferences.

The primary regional conference that ISC staff attend is sponsored by The East Asia

Regional Council of Schools (EARCOS, n.d.). They offer conferences specifically designed for

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administrators in the fall and for teachers in the spring. Many practical sessions are offered

across a wide range of topics and academic levels, and the conference is timed to dovetail with

two of the largest international hiring fairs.

Lastly on building professional staff capacity, ISC has sporadically sponsored Teacher

Teaching Teachers (TTT) sessions during the fall and spring two-day professional development

days held on campus. These sessions are voluntary opportunities for teachers to design and

conduct training to peers on virtually any topic relevant to student learning that they feel peers

may benefit from. Signups are handled online. The author has given three sessions in the past:

using interactive whiteboards to deepen student understanding, using student self-assessment to

create greater student ownership of their learning journey, and a sharing session involving staff

with doctorate degrees and doctoral candidates.

Third, ISC has a formalized teacher annual goal setting and evaluation process. In

September of each year, teachers determine in what ways they will improve as professionals and

complete an Annual Goals For Professional Growth form (see Appendix D). This form is

designed for the teacher to identify three goals, two of which must be connected to ISC’s

Professional Teaching Standards, and the other goal of personal professional interest. This form

is reviewed with the principal early in the school year and revisited via a short conference in

January to check on progress. Then, in May, teachers complete an assessment of progress made

on the three goals, present evidence of progress, and consider how to apply and further build

upon professional practice the following school year.

Finally, the fourth lens through which ISC engages professional development is through a

more informal means via PLCs established at the school. Perhaps best exemplified in the middle

school, where the author has been a PLC leader the past four years, the ongoing dialogue and

sharing of best practices in a small group setting has proven to be a powerful, embedded, real-

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time means to build teaching capacity and focus on enriching student learning engagements. For

example, the author’s PLC has collegially shared professional development outcomes across a

range of topics including project-based learning, design thinking, the neuroscience of learning,

critical thinking and questioning, and standards-based reporting.

Assessment of Professional Development and Mission Congruence

In order to assess the congruence of the ISC mission and its professional development

processes, the author suggests doing so by comparing key mission elements and the four

professional development lenses, or components, as described above. This will shed light on the

extent of congruence between the two.

A review of the ISC mission statement, as provided in Appendix A, reveals three

essential ingredients: a lifelong passion for learning, a commitment to act with integrity and

compassion, and the courage to live their (students’) dreams. Furthermore, ISC’s strategic

objectives focus on a passion for learning, a spirit of curiosity in the pursuit of personal

excellence, acting with integrity and compassion for others and the world, and confidently

exploring, discovering, expressing, and pursuing personal aspirations. Finally, ISC’s core values

are diversity, compassion and generosity of spirit, individual responsibility, intrinsic value of all

people, collaboration, global citizenship in caring for the earth and all inhabitants, creativity,

critical thinking, and a lifelong passion for learning.

As reviewed above, ISC has four lenses through which professional development can be

viewed: school-wide initiatives, professional practice capacity building, annual evaluation, and

ongoing development at the PLC level. The author’s experience is that these four avenues for

professional growth are seamless and integrated, offering multiple opportunities for staff to

continuously improve as educators and better serve their students.

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The author finds a significant degree of congruence between ISC’s mission and

professional development processes. Experience has shown that school-wide initiatives are

consciously tied to the mission and even named in such a way as with Project NOW/School on a

Mission. Other school-wide work such as the assessment task force, and Real Life Learning task

force, which morphed into the Project NOW committee, directly promote the advancement of

mission values.

Professional practice capacity building at ISC offers wonderful and varied opportunities

for growth that advance the state of practice in meeting student learning and development needs

consistent with the mission. From the PSU master’s program partnership to regional conferences

to TTT sessions, it is hard not to become involved in multiple avenues of growth. In fact, that has

been the author’s experience — many teachers have a difficult time balancing all the choices and

can become imbalanced due to excessive involvement. ISC tends to hire committed professionals

and they find a tantalizing array of opportunities to choose from. The $2,000 annual allowance

serves teachers across the experience bandwidth well, as younger teachers pursue their master’s

degree and mid-career as well as senior or veteran teachers pursue particular pedagogical

interests. Some veteran teachers, this author included, have used this $2,000 annually to support

doctoral work. There is, however, some controversy about the wide latitude in using these funds

as some staff have pushed the envelope of relevance.

ISC’s annual teacher goal setting and evaluation process largely supports the mission

since two of the three goals must address the established Professional Teaching Standards and

evidence must be gathered. The third, personal choice goal provides staff the opportunity to

pursue areas of personal passion and these do not always directly support the mission. Most

teachers take the annual goal setting and evaluation process very seriously, using it to

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continuously improve practice and, upon the May summary meeting with the principal, consider

how to build upon the momentum the next school year.

Finally, the middle school’s PLCs provide an ongoing, more informal opportunity for

collegial discourse, best practice sharing, and report outs from professional development

engagements. Since the author’s PLC consists of teachers from math, science, language arts,

social studies, English as an Additional Language, and orchestra, the variety of passions across

such a broad landscape avail many opportunities for collegial learning which is consistent with

the mission.

Assessment of Professional Development and NSDC Standards Congruence

NSDC (n.d.) argues that that there are seven Standards for Professional Learning that

“outline the characteristics of professional learning that leads to effective teaching practices,

supportive leadership, and improved student results.” These seven standards areas are:

leadership, learning communities, resources, data, learning designs, outcomes, and

implementation.

Furthermore, as mentioned above, NSDC (n.d.) argued that professional development

means “a comprehensive, sustained, and intensive approach to teachers’ and principals’

effectiveness in raising student achievement.” NSDC (n.d.) included specific descriptors of

effective professional development, including a “collective responsibility for improved student

performance,” largely conducted on school grounds, facilitated by and benefits teams of

educators, occurring weekly, directed by analysis of student data, embracing job embeddedness,

making clear links to the classroom, and informing a continuous improvement cycle for both

teachers and students.

Upon reflecting on ISC’s mission, NSDC’s standards, and actual professional

development practice at the school, the author finds a significant degree of congruence. For most

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of the author’s nine years at ISC school leadership has been outstanding but the past several

years Board of Director dysfunction resulted in the non-renewal of the Superintendent which

created a cascading effect resulting in the loss of several key members of senior administration.

The school has hired three new senior leaders for next year and they will have to restore lost

momentum. Learning communities are in basic form in the elementary school, well established

in middle school, and the new principal is piloting new learning community concepts in the high

school.

ISC enjoys full enrollment and is recognized amongst both the community and its peer

international school group as having exemplary facilities and resources. However, it has been the

author’s experience that there is scant use of data to plan, assess, and evaluate professional

learning. Given that ISC is an independent school, it can decide what standardized testing to

value. The high school most values SAT and IB test results but it is the author’s understanding

that they are not widely used to improve instruction. Likewise, Measures of Academic Progress

(MAP) testing is used in middle school but results are not widely embraced to inform pedagogy.

Professional learning designs have increasingly incorporated latest research and best

practices at the school. This has been very evident on both the assessment task force and Project

NOW work which is intended to prepare students for the rigors of the 21st century. Relative to

outcomes, since ISC is an independent international school, the mission drives much of the

professional development focus and clear ties to educator performance and curriculum standards

is not always evident. Finally, regarding implementation, like most schools ISC has gone through

periods of initiative fatigue but is becoming more adept at sustaining focus on key priorities. This

was quite evident on the assessment task force, standards based reporting initiative, and most

recently with Project NOW.

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Literature Review

The literature includes ample guidance on the topic of professional development. First,

the course texts and Discussions 1 through 4 help inform this paper. Macro-level strategies for

focusing on teacher professional development must “focus on information most important to

your school’s mission and unique context” (Tallerico, 2005, p. 10). In addition, Fullan argued

that effective educational change involves a three-tier process involving initiation,

implementation, and institutionalization (as cited in Fogarty & Pete, 2007, p. 9). Furthermore,

Hall and Hord (2011) reported that there are 10 principles of change across systemic,

organizational, and individual levels. Hall and Hord (2011) stated that principle two is

“organizations adopt change—individuals implement it” (p. 9) and that this involves helping

staff cross an “implementation bridge” (p. 11). Finally, in a similar vein, Fogarty and Pete (2007)

stated that people’s perspectives change by actually working through a process, or in their words,

“practices come first and beliefs follow” (p. 4).

In addition, Tallerico (2005) suggested that effective professional development involves

elements of backward planning where desired outcomes guide the creation of the engagements.

By doing so, professional development designers directly connect evaluation and content plans,

thus increasing the likelihood that the professional development will generate the desired results.

Guskey (2000) argued that adult learners desire clear, practical outcomes and that changes occur

first in teacher behaviors, then beliefs (as cited in Fogarty & Pete, 2007). Fogarty and Pete

(2007) included ten Ideas for Finding Time for Professional Development: purchase time,

borrow time, create the time, tier the time, use common time, capitalize on found time, free up

time, reschedule time, use time differently, and schedule release time (p. 52).

With this big picture backdrop, the literature also provides specifics on designing and

conducting effective professional development. Fogarty and Pete (2007) included “seven critical

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components that seem to spell the success for substantive long-lasting change” that appear

repeatedly in the literature (p. 41). The Seven Critical Qualities of Professional Development are:

(1) sustained (implemented over time); (2) job-embedded (occurs at work site); (3) collegial

(supports a community of learners); (4) interactive (engages participants); (5) integrated

(involves multiple modes of interaction); (6) results-oriented (goal and data driven); and (7)

practical, hands on (real-world relevance) (p. 41).

Lieberman wrote about the ten reasons why professional development engagements often

fail to meet the intended outcome. The Reasons Why Professional Development Fails are: (1)

lack of knowledge about how teachers learn; (2) teachers’ definition of the problems of practice

ignored; (3) agenda for reform not part of teachers’ profession learning; (4) teaching described as

a set of technical skills, not invention; (5) importance of context within teachers work is ignored;

(6) support mechanisms and learning over time not considered; (7) time and mechanism for

inventing often absent; (8) importance of facilitating at school level to change practice absent;

(9) connection to school culture to change practice often ignored; and (10) networks to support

change in practice not promoted (as cited in Fogarty & Pete, 2007, p. 40).

Knowles focused on the learning needs unique to adults and enumerated nine findings (as

cited in Fogarty & Pete, 2007). Those findings were: (1) control of their learning; (2) immediate

utility; (3) focus on issues that concern them; (4) test their learning as they go; (5) anticipate how

they will use their learning; (6) expect performance improvement; (7) maximize available

resources; (8) require collaborative, respectful, mutual, and informal climate; and (9) rely on

information that is appropriate and developmentally paced.

Relative to designing effective professional learning, Tallerico (2005) stated that there are

five professional development models to consider: individually guided, collaborative problem

solving, observation and assessment of teaching, training, and action research. Furthermore, the

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authors suggested that when determining which model to use there are three alignments to

choose from in order to meet the intended outcome: learner alignment, outcome alignment, and

double alignment. Fogarty and Pete (2007) stated that the three essential components are

planning the experience, providing the creature comforts, and preparing the actual setting. In

summarizing these three, the authors wrote, “plan the workshop context, content, and concepts

for customized programs tailored to the needs of the group,” then “provide the creature comforts

that make or break the workshop,” followed by “prepare the site for an optimal learning

experience that supports adult learning theory and best practices” (p. 83).

Regarding the presentation of professional development engagements, Fogarty and Pete

(2007) suggested that there are three essential responsibilities in doing so: “capture… the

audience and get their focused attention for the session; tell them what you’re going to do;

captivate… the audience and keep them with you with expert information that enhances their

understanding of the topic and do it; and close through comments that revisit and emphasize key

learnings to take away and tell them what you did” (p. 92). The authors stated that it is important

to capture participants with personality being sure to include an introduction, opener, and

agenda. In captivating with skill they suggested incorporating stories, visuals, facts, data, and

information, humor, movement, interactions, and read the audience. When “closing with

keepers” (p. 89), the authors reported that developers could use activities to help participants

walk away with relevance and transfer.

In terms of evaluating the quality of professional development engagements, Guskey

argued that there are five levels of assessment, or stages of questioning, that must be applied to

teacher professional development (as cited in Tallerico, 2005, p. 21). These five levels are: (1)

teachers’ reactions; (2) teachers’ learning; (3) organizational support and change; (4) teachers’

use of new knowledge and skills; and (5) student learning outcomes. Guskey stated that the five

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levels need to be “chronological in sequence for conducting a multitiered evaluation” and

“reversed for planning purposes” (p. 21).

Upon conducting a literature review at large through a ProQuest database search there is

excellent work to draw upon to further understand elements of effective professional

development. At a systems level, Jones, Stall, and Yarbrough (2013) discussed PLCs through the

lens of professional development and argued that the operating culture of the organization is

important for effective and sustained PLCs and serves as an effective form of ongoing

professional development. Likewise, Khalid, Joyes, Ellison, and Karim (2013) studied the

relationship between professional development and involvement in communities of practice

involving 16 teachers from five schools in two Malaysian states. The authors found that

“although for these teachers, attending courses, training and seminars helped them to gain new

knowledge and related skills, their involvement in informal learning communities was

significantly more meaningful for their professional development” (p. 102).

Also at the macro level, Jenkins and Agamba (2013) studied the implementation of the

Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative and argued that a significant missing link is

effective professional development. The authors reported that inadequate professional

development is being offered to deconstruct CCSS and help teachers understand the differences

between CCSS and existing state standards. Jenkins and Agamba (2013) reported that the “six

research-based features identified in the literature as crucial in the design and evaluation of

teacher professional development” are content focus, active learning, duration, collective

participation, coherence, and alignment (p. 77). Ayeni (2011) studied the relationship between

professional development and teaching quality, finding that doing so improves the quality of

curriculum delivery. He argued that this is the case regardless of how proficient teachers are

deemed to be.

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Kishchuk, Gauthier, Roy, and Borys (2013) reported on the use of learning circles for

advanced professional development. The authors defined a learning circle as, “structured

collaborative cycles of learning activities organized by experienced practitioners about topics of

mutual interest where members are collectively responsible to support the learning of all” (p. 89).

Their study involved four members who rotated the facilitator role, located in three cities, and

held one hour teleconference sessions every six weeks, discussing two to six articles based on

two guiding questions with time allotted for reflection at the end. Participants completed a self

assessment after each session using a rating scale of high learning, comfort, refreshment, and

disgruntlement. Results showed that while “learning outcomes were individualized and

participants did not necessarily gain the same value from each session,” there was clear evidence

of learning gains. Kishchuk et al. (2013) argued that learning circles offer the following

advantages over traditional conferences and workshops: flexibility, accommodating of

geographically disperse participants, accountability for completion of task,

shared responsibility for learning, extracts a wide range of perspectives which deepens

understanding, creates trust, and engenders professionally stimulating discourse.

Numerous studies shed light on aspects of professional development engagements that

bolster quality outcomes. Breneselovic and Krnjaja (2012) used a loom thread metaphor to

describe the dynamic and interconnected woven characteristics of professional development. The

authors stated that professional development can be thought of as a loom frame, encompassed by

four interconnected and independent dimensions: (1) teachers’ professional improvement, (2)

professional advancement, (3) improvement of practice, and (4) education policy that promotes a

culture of change and development across the system. Furthermore, Breneselovic and Krnjaja

(2012) suggested that,

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The forms of professional improvement can be individual (e.g. reading and analysis of literature, writing professional papers, keeping journal), joint (formal, informal and spontaneous learning and development) within the context of practice (e.g. discussion groups, mentoring, collaborative observations, action research, focus groups)and organized out of the practice context (e.g. organized trainings, professional gatherings, study visits to other institutions). (p. 139) Patton, Parker, and Neutzling (2012) studied the importance of effective facilitation in

professional development engagement. The authors reported that three common, fundamental

beliefs were critical to effectively facilitating participant learning: understanding and building

upon what participants bring to the engagement, learning is an active process requiring an

immersion in meaningful content applied in context, and learning is a social process involving a

collaborative and supportive community. Similarly, Desimone reported from a review of the

literature on teacher professional development that five features are essential for success: content

focus, active learning, coherence, duration (including twenty or more hours of contact time), and

collective participation (as cited in Pella, 2012, p. 61). Pella (2012) investigated the scope of

what should be considered relevant data in determining appropriate professional development

engagements. The study revealed that participants were frustrated by a singular focus on

standardized testing results as they believed a broader view of student learning measures needs to

be evaluated including classroom formative and assessment data, and that this broader view

needs to be a collaborative inquiry.

Pitsoe and Maila (2012) argued that the demands of the 21st century require that teacher

professional development be viewed from a constructivist perspective and pursued as a lifelong

learning activity. The author reported that elements of this kind of professional development

include individually-guided development, observation and assessment, involvement in a

development or improvement process, training, and inquiry. Pitsoe and Maila (2012)

summarized their findings this way: modern professional development must make a “dramatic

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shift in professional development focus, away from the transmission model of teaching, towards

one that is much more complex, situational/contextual, and interactive” (p. 324).

Guskey (2003a) reviewed leading literature in search of common characteristics that were

believed to be essential to professional development quality. He reported that many

characteristics varied widely in their inclusion and that no characteristics were consistently

reported. Guskey (2003a) reported that “the most frequently mentioned characteristic of essential

professional development is enhancement of teachers’ content and pedagogical knowledge,”

appearing in 11 of the 13 publications reviewed (p. 9). He also reported that 10 of the lists

included sufficient time and other resources, and another frequently mentioned characteristic was

collegiality and collaborative exchange. Guskey (2003a, 2003b) argued that there remains a need

to professionalize a research-based approach to professional development, where consensus is

increasingly secured to maximize effectiveness.

Guskey and Yoon (2009) investigated the relationship between professional development

and improvement in student learning. The authors reported that only nine of 1,343 studies

reviewed met standards for research rigor and they occurred between 1986 and 2003 and none

occurred at the middle and high school levels. From these nine well-designed studies, Guskey

and Yoon (2009) reported that the most common shared elements or characteristics of effective

professional development were well-structured training workshops, the intentional involvement

of outside experts, adequate time, follow-up, activities, and content. Among the implications of

the research, Guskey and Yoon (2009) stated, was that “implementation of any new professional

development strategy should always begin with small-scale, carefully controlled, pilot studies

designed test its effectiveness” (pp. 498-499). Furthermore, they argued, before embarking on

any new strategy or committing significant resources “that new strategy should be carefully

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examined in that context to determine if the promised effects in terms of student learning gains

can be realized” (p. 499).

Saunders (2012) investigated the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) developed

by Hall and Hord (2011) as a conceptual lens and methodology for the assessment of

professional development programs. The author reported that CBAM is useful in better

understanding how change is mediated at the individual and systems level, and that it offers an

“additional lens to investigate and corroborate assumptions about the dynamics of change” (p.

199).

In research at the classroom level, White (2011) reported the results of an investigation

using a hands-on, project-based learning training institute approach for North Carolina biology

teacher professional development. The author stated that active learning elements and the

construction of concept maps as a reflective assessment of their learning were beneficial to both

deeper understanding and preparation for improved classroom practice. In a study of special

education teachers, Kaufman and Ring (2011) found that “pathways to leadership are inspired

and motivated by professional development that is contextualized and designed to be relevant to

teachers and the students they teach” (p. 59).

Exemplary Professional Development Practices and Areas for Improvement

After both describing professional development processes at ISC and reviewing the

literature above, an evaluation can be made as to exemplary practices as well as areas that need

improvement. The evaluation was made across the four lenses through which professional

development can be viewed at ISC: school-wide initiatives, professional practice capacity

building, annual evaluation, and ongoing development at the PLC level. The author found

several exemplary practices as well as opportunities for improvement as discussed below.

  21

The finest examples of professional development strategies that are congruent with

school mission, NSDC standards, and calls from the literature are: Project NOW at the school-

wide initiative level, the PSU master’s program partnership, and TTT sessions within

professional capacity building, the explicit linking of annual growth and ISC Professional

Teaching Standards embedded in the evaluation process, and PLCs at the middle school. The

literature as reported above offered ample support for these practices to build a professional

approach to student learning and development (NSDC, n.d.; Tallerico, 2005; Hall & Hord, 2011;

Fogarty & Pete, 2007; Jenkins & Agamba, 2013; Breneselovic & Krnjaja, 2012; Guskey, 2003a;

Guskey, 2003b; Sanders, 2012; Kishchuk, et al., 2013; Patton, et al., 2012; Pella, 2012; Pitsoe &

Maila, 2012; Ayeni, 2011; Guskey & Yoon, 2009; White, 2011; Kaufman & Ring, 2011; Jones,

Stall, & Yarbrough, 2013; Khalid, et al., 2012).

While there is reason to applaud each of the four components as outlined at ISC there is

also opportunity for improvement in each. Regarding school-wide initiatives, the Board of

Director dysfunction mentioned above led to the loss of momentum in advancing the

measurement of mission implementation progress. While the high school self-assessment rubric

(Appendix B) was created during the highly community-inclusive mission development work, no

further progress has been made in the past two years. This recommendation is supported in the

literature (Hall & Hord, 2011; Guskey, 2003a; Guskey, 2003b; Sanders, 2012; Fogarty & Pete,

2007; Tallerico, 2005; Breneselovic & Krnjaja, 2012; Jenkins & Agamba, 2013; NSDC, n.d.).

In the area of professional capacity building, there exists a need to more closely align the

$2,000 annual individual teacher professional development fund and school initiatives. Perhaps a

portion of the funds or a portion of the funds over consecutive two-year intervals could be more

directly support the direction of the school. Likewise, within the annual evaluation process, the

third growth goal area is currently worded quite loosely, and could be restructured in such a way

  22

as to balance teacher latitude in pursuing personal interest and the needs of the school. These

suggestions are supported in the literature (Pitsoe & Maila, 2012; Pella, 2012; Patton et al., 2012;

Kishchuk, et al., 2013; Jenkins & Agamba, 2013; Fogarty & Pete, 2007; Hall & Hord, 2011;

Tallerico, 2005; NSDC, n.d.)

Finally, pertaining to the operation of PLCs at the school, there exist two significant

needs. One is the formation of PLC structures at the high school. The current high school culture

is largely built on a traditional departmental model and affords excessive teacher isolation.

NSCC standards and the literature are abundantly clear that this needs to be addressed. Also,

while there excellent PLC structures exist in the middle school, due to the highly distributed

model of leadership in the division, grade level PLC teams tend to become immersed in

managing administrative details to the detriment of engaging in higher valued added collegial

work and designing and implementing 21st century learning engagements for students.

Specifically, PLC teams need to find ways to embrace block schedule flexibility, delivering

greater cross-disciplinary project-based learning engagements, peer observation, and review of

student work. The literature clearly supports shifts in these directions and given that the hard

work of creating PLC structure has been done at the middle school, there exists a major

opportunity to make this a priority with the potential of significant benefitting staff and student

development. These recommendations are supported in the literature as well (Hall & Hord, 2011;

Fogarty & Pete, 2007; Tallerico, 2005; Kishchuk, et al., 2013; Jones, Stall, & Yarbrough, 2013;

Khalid, et al., 2012; NSDC, n.d.).

Conclusion

This paper engaged the writer in conducting an audit of his school’s professional

development practices. To do so, he first put forth a definition of professional development and

then evaluated ISC’s current systems, identifying four facets of how the school goes about

  23

professional development: school-wide initiatives, professional practice capacity building,

annual evaluation, and ongoing development at the PLC level. This, then, led to an evaluation of

the congruence between these four areas and the school’s mission, finding very good

congruence.

The author then searched NSDC standards, course reference material, and the research

literature to provide the basis for furthering the audit. The evaluation resulted in overall

favorable results for the school with several areas of exemplary practice, as well as several areas

for improvement, across all four components of professional development.

This assignment has been quite beneficial on two levels: auditing ISC’s current

professional development philosophy and, thanks to a thoughtful literature review, has added

considerably to the author’s understanding of essential elements in building professional

development capacity in schools.

  24

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Appendix A

ISC Mission Statement, Strategic Objectives, and Core Values

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ISC Mission Statement, Strategic Objectives, and Core Values

ISC Mission Statement: The International School of China inspires in all students:

A lifelong passion for learning, A commitment to act with integrity and compassion, and The courage to live their dreams.

Strategic Objectives: By 2016, all students will:

Continually demonstrate passion for learning and spirit of curiosity in the pursuit of personal excellence;

Consistently act with integrity and compassion for others and the world; and Continually and confidently explore, discover, express, and pursue personal aspirations.

Core Values: We believe that:

Embracing diversity enriches individuals and communities; Acts of compassion and generosity of spirit create a better world; When individuals take responsibility for their own decisions, they are empowered

to make positive impact; Each individual has intrinsic value and the potential to contribute to society; Collaboration is key to overcoming complex challenges and achieving common goals; Integrity is the foundation of enduring relationships, quality institutions, and well- functioning communities; As global citizens we have a duty to care for the earth and its inhabitants to ensure the

well-being of humankind; and Creativity, critical thinking, and a lifelong passion for learning are essential to personal

fulfillment and to meet the challenges of the future.

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Appendix B

Graduating High School Student Self-Assessment Rubric

  30

Graduating High School Student Self-Assessment Rubric

  31

  32

  33

Appendix C

ISC Project NOW Wheel

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ISC Project NOW wheel

  35

Appendix D

ISC Annual Professional Growth Process

  36

ISC Annual Goals for Professional Growth

Annual Goals for Professional Growth Form A

ISC faculty members will identify three professional goals for the school year. At least two of the three goals must be connected to the ISC Professional Teaching Standards. One goal may reflect a personal professional interest. All three goals will work together to enhance student growth and achievement. Professional goals are intended to enhance a faculty member’s performance and expertise. A goal should be one that significantly challenges or stretches the faculty member professionally. Goals should be specific, measureable, attainable, realistic, and timely (SMART). Goal statements are submitted to the immediate supervisor by the date assigned.

Name: Date:

Subject: Division:

GOAL #1

Goal Statement:

Standard Addressed Strategies for Implementation Success Criteria - Evidence

GOAL #2

Goal Statement:

Standard Addressed Strategies for Implementation Success Criteria - Evidence

GOAL #3

Goal Statement:

Standard Addressed Strategies for Implementation Success Criteria - Evidence

Committee Assignments/commitments: ___________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ Teacher Signature Administrator Signature