Studies of high-performing school districts highlight the key to raising student achievement: Improvement must begin in the classroom. By working to get effective research-based teaching strategies into every classroom, districts make use of a powerful lever for improvement.

Gordon Cawelti and Nancy ProtheroeHandbook on Restructuring and

Substantial School Improvement

The Goal—Building Capacity

Schools need to:

Use the research base to identify elements of effective instruction

Increase each teacher’s repertoire of instructional strategies, thus equipping teachers to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student body

Increase teachers’ belief—both individually and collectively—that they can have a positive effect on learning for every student

Help teachers see each other as the most powerful resources for improving teaching

Critical Elements of High-Quality Professional Development

Content: Centered on student learning

Context: Integrated with school improvement

Design: Active, sustained learningLinda Darling-Hammond and Nikole Richards, Teacher Learning, What

Matters? (Educational Leadership, February 2009)

Effective Staff Development

Emphasizes clear, research-based indicators of effective teaching and classroom management

Begins with a clear sense of what students need to learn and be able to do

Uses an assessment of whole faculty and individual teacher needs as a foundation for decisions about focus/content

Is job-embedded and team-based

Uses the research base on effective pedagogy

Follows up training with support and time to practice

Provides generous amounts of time for collaborative work

Changes the organization’s structure and culture at the same time teachers are acquiring new knowledge and skills

Sam Redding. Systems for Student Success: The Principal’s Role (presentation at 2009 VASSP Conference). Dennis Sparks. “Focusing Staff Development on Improving the Learning of All Students” in Handbook of Research on Improving Student Achievement.

Staff development. . . must have as its core process a “community of learners” whose members accept joint responsibility for the high levels of learning of all students. The teachers in this community of learners must meet regularly to learn, plan, and support one another in the process of continuous improvement.Dennis Sparks. “Focusing Staff Development on Improving the Learning of All Students” in Handbook of Research on ImprovingStudent Achievement.

“Sit and Get” workshops

Opportunities for teachers tolearn from other teachers

Moving away from “seat time”

Professional dialogue, sharing ideas and materialspeer-to-peer

Collaborative development of curriculum and instructional units

Collective analysis of student work Use of coaches and/or peer observation

followed by discussion Intervention teams focused on

identifying and trying additional instructional strategies with students having difficulty

Learner Activity Informal Structured

Individual Reflection in practice Individual reading

Action research School self-study

Collaborative Daily interactions Peer observations Sharing information

and ideas

Team teaching Peer coaching

Professional Development “In” Work: Embedding Learning Opportunities

in Teachers’ Daily Activities

Designs for Learning: A New Architecture for Professional Development in Schools. P.V. Bredeson, 2003.

For an Effective and Cost-Effective StaffDevelopment Program:

Strategically align staff development with district and school initiatives

Use indicators such as student achievement and observed classroom teaching practices to inform decisions about content and participants

Provide high-quality, research-based content plus time to discuss and practice

Broaden the definition of what staff development looks like