Professional Development: Supporting Teacher Effectiveness and Retention

1. Professional Development: Supporting Teacher Effectiveness and Retention Carol Albritton Office of Professional Standards, Licensing and Higher Education Collaboration Sandra O’Neil Office of Academic Standards

2. Current Research on Professional Development Professional Learning in the Learning Profession: A Status Report on Teacher Development in the U. S. and Abroad By Linda Darling-Hammond, et. al. School Redesign Network, Stanford University and National Staff Development Council February, 2009 the most comprehensive study of professional development ever conducted in the U.S.

3. Professional Learning in the Learning Profession Share the study through jigsaw groups. • Form groups of 3 • Everyone reads pages 3-6 silently(Preface and Key Findings) (6 minutes) • Each person selects a chapter to read silently (5 minutes) • Share the key ideas from each chapter with your group (6 minutes)

4. Comments on the report’s findings?

5. “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” Confucius * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Many teachers state that they learned more in the first year of teaching than in all the years of formal teacher preparation.

6. From Professional Developmentto Professional Learning Rick DuFour asks: “Why do institutions created for and devoted to learning not call upon the professionals within them to become more proficient in improving the effectiveness of schools by actually doing the work of school improvement?” Learning By Doing (2006) Job-embedded learning that improves teacher practice is formalized by developing a school culture around professional learning community principles.

7. Regulations: N.J.A.C. 6A:9-15 • Creation of a school level professional development committee (SPDC) comprising 3 teachers and one administrator • 2008 – 2009 a developmental year for learning about effective professional learning practices at the school level • Initial school level plans will be written in Fall 2009 for the 2010 – 2011 SY and submitted to the local committee (LPDC) • Multiple training opportunities from NJ DOE and partner organizations Details: Webinar Number One – Download and view the recorded webinar and powerpoint document: www.nj.gov/education/profdev/pd/teacher

8. NJ Professional Development Initiative Focusing Collaborative Professional Learning • New Jersey Professional Development Standards for Educators • New Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers and School Leaders • New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards • School needs assessment and other relevant data (achievement, demographic, perception, school processes) • School improvement goals • Students’ daily work / formative assessments / summative assessments

9. NJ DOE has a long-standing partnership with NSDC who developed and published a tool kit to support the development of professional learning communities: Collaborative Professional Learning in School and Beyond: A Tool Kit for New Jersey Educators Contents Chap. 1 – A New Kind of Professional Development Chap. 2 – Aligning the Standards: Making the Case Chap. 3 – Collaborative Professional Learning Chap. 4 – Getting Started Chap. 5 – Supportive Conditions for Collaborative Professional Learning Chap. 6 – Facilitating Collaborative Teams Chap. 7 – Making Time Chap. 8 – Using Data Chap. 9 – Working Collaboratively Chap. 10 – Team Planning and Reporting Chap. 11 – Role of Principal Chap. 12 – Role of Central Office Chap. 13 – Evaluating Collaborative Professional Learning

10. School Culture—Shared Purpose and Vision “Great schools ‘row as one’; they are quite clearly in the same boat, pulling in the same direction in unison. The best schools we visited were tightly aligned communities marked by a palpable sense of common purpose and shared identity among staff—a clear sense of ‘we.’ By contrast, struggling schools feel fractured; there is a sense that people work in the same school but not toward the same goals.” Lickona and Davidson (2005)

11. Culture Audit: A First Step toward Developing A PLC Tool Kit —Tool 5.2:Self-Assessment: School Culture Triage. Used successfully in public schools of North Carolina, Florida and Kentucky over the last decade. It can be used with one school or an entire district to provide immediate feedback. • Form groups of 3. • Complete the self-assessment individually for a school or district you know well. (4 minutes) • Score your results by adding the points. 1 point = never 5 points = always or almost always

12. Culture AuditA First Step toward Developing A PLC Discuss these questions in your group: (6 minutes) • Which attributes that align with best practices received high marks? To what do you attribute these practices? (Policies? Infrastructure? Tradition? Reforms? Leadership? Other?) • Which attributes that align with best practices received low marks? To what do you attribute the low marks?

13. The Heart of the Work: PROFESSIONAL LEARNING TEAMS Team composition: by grade level, whole faculty, departmental, articulation, interdisciplinary, small learning community faculty, etc. • Action research • Study groups • Mentoring/coaching • Analysis of student work • Curriculum design/ curriculum mapping • Common assessments • Tuning protocols • Data analysis • Lesson Study

14. PROFESSIONAL LEARNING TEAMS Teams focus on the guiding questions to achieve results: What is essential for students to learn? How will we know if they have learned it? What will we do if they don’t learn? What will we do if they already know it? What do teachers need to know to support student learning?

15. Supporting Collaboration Teachers  School-based Resource Staff and Supervisors  Principal  District Curriculum and PD Supervisors

16. Launching a PLC: Some Advice from A School Leader • Read the article “How to Launch a Community” by Rick DuFour. (3 minutes) • Highlight or underscore 2 statements that you can take back and share with colleagues. • Discuss the 2 statements in your group. What concrete advice from this principal’s experience can you apply to your school or district? (3 minutes)

17. Getting Buy-in • Read the article “Getting Everyone to Buy In” by Rick DuFour. (3 minutes) • Highlight or underscore 2 statements that you can take back and share with colleagues. • Discuss the 2 statements with your team members. What practical lesson is found in this principal’s experience? (3 minutes)

18. Comments? “Unless teams of teachers improve together, schools never will.” Michael Fullan

19. Research Linking Professional Learning Communities with School Improvement Linda Darling Hammond, The Right to Learn Michael Fullan, Change Forces Fred Newmann and Gary Wehlage, Successful School Restructuring Mike Schmoker, Results Steve Klein, et.al., Fitting the Pieces: Education Reform that Works

20. Research Linking Professional Learning Communities with School Improvement Richard Sagor, Collaborative Action Research for Educational Change Jonathan Saphier, John Adams’ Promise Doug Reeves, The Leader’s Guide to Standards Robert Marzano, What Works in Schools Gordon Cawelti, “The New Effective Schools” in Best Practices, Best Thinking and Emerging Issues in School Leadership

21. New Jersey Tool Kit The tool kit is password-protected on the NJDOE web site. It will be available for download from December 1, 2008 until December 31, 2009. To access the tool kit after entering the URL, write to: TeachPD@doe.state.nj.us Email your questions and comments related to professional learning

22. Additional Resources “A Common Language” – professional learning community defined by partner organizations (request at TeachPD@doe.state.nj.us) Learning by Doing. (2006) Rick DuFour, et. al., Solution-Tree. Failure Is Not An Option (2004) Alan Blankstein, Corwin Press.

23. Additional Resources Leading Professional Learning Communities. (2007) Hord and Sommers, Corwin Press. Finding Time. (2008) Ed. Valerie Von Frank, NSDC Creating a Culture. (2008) Ed. Valerie Von Frank, NSDC Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work. (2008) DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, and Many, Solution -Tree. www.allthingsplc.orgwww.nsdc.org www.solution-tree.com

24. Opportunities • NJ DOE series of webinars on collaborative professional learning (download prerecorded webinars and view individually or with teams of educators – instructions online) • Convocation for superintendents and LPDC chairpersons • NJ DOE regional training opportunities for school/district teams • Partner organizations provide opportunities state wide and regionally • Development of PLC virtual networks of schools and districts

25. Partner Organizations • NJDOE • NJEA • NJASA • NJPSA • NJSBA • NJASCD • Kean University

26. Training opportunities: www.nj.gov/education/events www.nj.gov/education/njpep Professional Development: www.nj.gov/education/profdev/pd/teacher Highly Qualified Teacher Requirements: www.nj.gov/education/profdev/nclb