The importance of professional development

Description

This study is designed to examine how an urban elementary school used professional development as a part of a whole-school change initiative. The goal is to offer insight into the opportunities and challenges that a school encounters in using professional development to make systemic changes that will be long-lasting and that will have a positive impact on student achievement. This research is important because of the need to understand and critique the many whole-school change initiatives at schools across the country. To better understand the use of best practices in the change process, I will pose the following research questions: (1) How did a Reading First school use professional development as a means of increasing student achievement? (2) Based on documents and recollections of teachers and administrators, what aspects of this change initiative led to changes in instructional practice? I will conduct a qualitative case study at the Urban School (pseudonym), an inner-city elementary school that received the Reading First grant in 2003. I will identify whether the professional development had an impact on instruction, and whether these teaching improvements have remained in place over time. Using several researchers that present data on the use of best practices, I will be able to explore the features that this site addressed as part of its professional development plan. I will include the works of Garet, et. al., Newmann, et. al., and Desimone, et. al. who have identified key features of successful professional development implementation plans that surface through the data collection and analysis. I will present the key factors of best practice that emerge including: active learning such as observations within the classroom, collective participation of groups of teachers that can lead to shared opportunities for teachers to discuss the professional development experiences, and the principal as a source of support that can reinforce the change process. The findings will include the idea that when professional development is planned with key features in mind, the results can be improvements in instructional practice, increased collegiality, and an impact on the school's culture that leads to a common understanding about improving student achievement.

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