Under a contract with the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), PSA staff are facilitating the work of the Maryland Teacher Professional Development Advisory Council as this 26-member group appointed by the Maryland State Superintendent of Schools reviews state and local professional development policies, programs, and practices. Recent PSA support to the Council has included collecting and reporting information about:
- The state-of-the-art in evaluating teacher professional development in Maryland
- College and university courses as professional development
- How districts and schools include time for professional development into regular schedules
- The role of school-based professional development staff
- District programs to support new teachers
PSA also assists the Council in preparing reports to the State Superintendent of Schools and the Maryland State Board of Education. The Council’s initial report, Helping Teachers Help All Students: The Imperative for High-Quality Professional Development, which was completed in December 2004, introduced the Maryland Teacher Professional Development Standards. Subsequent reports, including The Pursuit of Excellence in Teacher Professional Development, completed in March 2008, describe progress in implementing the standards and presented findings and recommendations about several of the issues listed above. The Council’s final report will be completed in February 2009.
PSA has developed a guide to facilitate planning for teacher professional development and, in particular, to make sure that planned activities are of high quality. The guide is aligned with the Maryland Teacher Professional Development Standards and offers step-by-step instructions and planning tips. PSA has also developed tools to orient users to the planning process and to assist reviewers in providing feedback on completed plans.
Instead of requiring a specific model of teacher professional development, the guide encourages planners to:
- Review student learning needs, the instructional approaches necessary to meet those needs, and the professional learning that teachers need in order to understand and apply these approaches
- Define teacher competencies that promote student learning
- Offer varied learning activities and follow-up that can be reasonably expected to result in intended results
- Arrange to evaluate the effectiveness of professional development
- Mobilize support (people, time, and money) necessary to ensure success
Currently, PSA staff are completing work on two additional tools for use in improving the quality of professional development. The Teacher Professional Development Evaluation Guide, which complements the planning guide, will be a resource for districts, MSDE, and others to use in planning and conducting rigorous evaluations of professional development. The Teacher Professional Development Spending Analysis Tool helps districts track spending on (1) salaries and benefits for staff who have responsibilities related to teacher professional development, (2) fees and expenses for consultants, (3) support for teacher participation in professional development (e.g., substitutes, stipends, travel to conferences and meetings, salaries for district professional development days), (4) tuition for college and university courses, (5) supplies, materials, and equipment and (6) facilities. Districts will be able tailor the tool to focus on local priorities and needs. The evaluation guide and spending analysis tool will be available in November 2009.
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