PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
LEARNING FROM THE BEST
A TOOLKIT FOR SCHOOLS AND DISTRICTS BASED ON
THE NATIONAL AWARDS
PROGRAM FOR MODEL
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
By Emily Hassel
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
Overview 3
Professional Development Action Planner: Organizers’ Checklist 5
Step One: Designing Professional Development 9
Overview 9
Include Participants and Organizers in the Professional Development Design Process 9
Make a Clear Plan That Includes How Professional Development Supports the
School/District’s Long-Term Plan 15
Make a Clear Plan That Includes a Professional Development Needs Assessment Process 19
Make a Clear Plan That Includes Professional Development Goals 25
Make a Clear Plan That Includes Professional Development Content, Process, and Activities 31
Make a Clear Plan That Includes Research That Supports the Chosen Content/Process for
Professional Development 37
Make a Clear Plan That Includes Resources Available to Support Professional Development 41
Make a Clear Plan That Includes Professional Development Evaluation Steps 45
Share the Plan With the School Community 49
Step Two: Implementing Professional Development 53
Overview 53
Stay Abreast of and Incorporate Best Practices into Teaching, Learning, and Leadership 53
Make Sure School/District Policies and Practices Support Actual Professional Development
Implementation for Staff in Schools 55
Ensure That Resources Remain Available to Organize and Implement Professional Development 59
Make Professional Development Part of Everyday Life at School 61
Step Three: Evaluating and Improving Professional Development 65
Overview 65
Use Professional Development Design Goals to Determine Evaluation Measures and
Standards for Success 65
Clarify Who Is Accountable for Collecting, Analyzing, and Reporting Data and for
Facilitating “PD Next Steps” Decisions 67
Use Evaluation Findings to Make Improvements in Professional Development 69
Ensure That Evaluation Criteria Include at Least: (a) Improvement in Teaching, (b) Improvement in
Student Learning, and (c) Narrowing of Student Achievement Gaps 71
OVERVIEW
This toolkit takes the best practices of award-winning schools and organizes them
into a step-by-step planner for designing and implementing professional development.
It digs beneath the award criteria and tells us how award winners did it.
For example, we know that getting teachers involved in professional development
design is one award criterion. This guide tells you specifically how award winners
got teachers involved. It also will help you follow these important strategies:
• Put Your Ideas Into Action. The goal of this guide is to help schools
and districts move from thinking about change to doing it. The guide
provides tools to lead professional development change in your own
school or district. Specifically, an Organizers’ Checklist and series of
Action Planning Tools help you identify key decisions you need to make.
• Prepare to Work Hard—and Together. Leading important change is always
challenging. Overcoming obstacles takes a craving for excellence, creative
effort, attention to details, high levels of persuasion, and just the right balance
between patience and determination. Few individuals can do all of these all the
time. That is one good reason why the award winners presented here drew on
the skills and talents of several people to lead change. The award winners caution
that even by sharing the challenge, they had to work hard.
• Recognize That You Do Not Need to Be an “Expert.” Most change
leaders in winning organizations were not professional development
“experts.” Typically, they were teachers, principals, and other staff
concerned about student learning. Most learned about professional
development by conducting research and tapping the knowledge of
experts. You, too, can build your knowledge of professional development
to improve results in your school or district. If you and your
colleagues need to develop basic knowledge of professional development,
explore the resources in Appendix B, and plan to spend more time in the
research phase of professional development design.
• Use Our Resources. This guide provides other resources to support
your professional development. Appendices include the full award criteria
matched with the action steps presented in this guide (Appendix A);
resources for staying current in professional development (primarily
Web sites) (Appendix B); brief profiles of award-winning organizations
(Appendix C); and a literature review showing why the award criteria
have led to great results in schools (Appendix D).
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