In regards to district-wide professional development my recommendation is that the district chooses to focus on intervention and enrichment for the reasons outlined in the sections below.
II: BACKGROUND
The district has been focusing the past year on professional learning communities (PLCs) and establishing PLCs in each building across the district. The goal for the end of the 2015-16 school year was to start implementing these professional learning communities throughout the district by the start of the 2016-17 school year. This is happening in each building with time built-in throughout each teacher’s schedule to accommodate the shift toward collaboration and data-driven conversations. Therefore, the next logical step …show more content…
4) Administrators will offer support in the two areas and will supply any needed resources to help implement strategies being taught during the professional development. Administrators will also be sure to look that the strategies are being utilized in classrooms throughout the school year through observation and evaluations.
5) After attending PD days and implementing for an entire school year the following steps will be taken to determine the effectiveness of the professional development. i: Teachers will be asked to answer a survey that outlines how they felt about the strategies learned and whether they found it beneficial for students. ii: The data team will look to see if there has been any growth for the failing students identified at the start of the year. iii: The district report card will be reviewed to determine if there has been an improvement in gap closing and if the gifted data shows adequate growth for students in this particular subgroup.
IV: FAILURE IS NOT AN …show more content…
Each school would be working collaboratively within their individual building while the district would also be sharing the same vision and common language since all teachers would be receiving the same professional development strategies outlined for intervention and enrichment. By working together to discuss the data at each PLC meeting and then working with other teachers on “next steps,” it can give teachers ownership of how to meet the needs of struggling and accelerated students. Also, if within a PLC group if one teacher attends the intervention PD while another the enrichment PD it naturally allows for those teachers to become leaders within their own PLC group as they will be knowledgeable about ways to intervene or enrich each lesson. Blankstein emphasizes that by allowing teachers to lead, even in small ways, it can foster student growth and