Teacher Professional Development???? My take on Teacher Improvement and Professional Development. What do you think?

Warning: this post may incite, annoy or even anger some people but I am hopeful that it will also encourage and motivate change. I am coming at this post from the point of view of an educator for many years, a staff developer and a lifelong learner. I believe there are so many issues today with the fact that people believe “Teacher Professional Development” to be as simple as going online or attending a conference or a single day workshop for a few hours. The single day workshop commonly referred to as “drive-by PD” and many of the other models are not successful. The main reasons are because they are not ongoing, sustainable and high quality. Quality teacher professional development is a real issue and will always be an issue.

Let’s start with the problems. One is that “Professional Development” by definition assumes you have an innate skill or proficiency. My belief is that the term should be broken down into three specific terms. The initial term or concept should be “Professional Exposure”, giving others exposure to an educational expert. For new, impressionable teachers, this is important because they are most likely to get pumped and run with the new ideas. We must ensure however that the correct and appropriate effective pedagogical approach is being implemented. Also, when the concept is being implemented, it must be assessed correctly at the appropriate Depth of Knowledge level or taxonomic level. I personally have seen many teachers implement a program without fully knowing how to implement or assess it.

The second term “Professional Improvement” takes the concept that you already have some inkling of the concept and are going to improve it. This is crucial to the success of all teachers or individuals being that one must be a lifelong learner and have the inner drive to improve.  If one does not have the impetus for learning, then self-improvement will not happen.

The final term “Professional Development” (PD) and the ideal for this is something that is built upon concepts of effective PD. This occurs through coaching, reflection, or reviewing results. It may occur individually, in pairs, or in collaborative learning teams when educators plan, implement, analyze, reflect, and evaluate the integration of their professional learning into their practice. It occurs within learning communities that meet to learn or refine instructional strategies; plan lessons that integrate the new strategies; share experiences about implementing those lessons; analyze student work together to reflect on the results of use of the strategies; and assess their progress toward their defined goals.

Before schools can adopt these new 21^st-century standards for teacher professional development, Hirsch (of Learning Forward formerly known as the National Staff Development Council) said there are some prerequisites: (1) Educators must commit to ensuring that all students succeed, (2) Educators must be ready to learn continually, (3) School district leaders must understand that professional learning involves collaborative inquiry and learning, and (4) School district leaders must understand that educators learn in different ways and at different rates.

Learning Forward’s seven standards for professional learning that increase teacher effectiveness and results for all students are:

1. Learning Communities: Groups of teachers who are committed to continuous improvement, shared responsibility, and collective goal alignment.
2. Leadership: Skillful leaders who develop capacity, advocate, and create support systems for professional learning.
3. Resources: Prioritizing, monitoring, and coordinating resources for professional learning.
4. Data: Using a variety of sources and types of student, educator, and school system data to plan, assess, and evaluate professional learning.
5. Learning Designs: Integrating theories, research, and models of human learning to achieve intended outcomes.
6. Implementation: Applying research and sustained support for implementation of professional learning to foster long-term change.
7. Outcomes: Aligning outcomes with educator performance and student curriculum standards.

The issue with professional development many times is that the person responsible for organizing professional development, do so in ways that alienate rather than engage and assist educators. Those organizing the professional development may not be clear about specific improvements in educator and student performance that should result, or may not carefully determine what steps will lead to the desired performance levels. In addition, educators often complain that they are required to participate in poorly conceived and ineffective professional development leads to complaints professional development that does not address the real challenges they face in their schools and classrooms. They resent “one-size-fits-all” professional development that targets large numbers of educators from very different schools and classrooms who have students with different needs. Also, the professional development may not consider educators’ varying levels of motivation, interest, knowledge, and skill. This is the rationale for the differentiated approach to PD just as we differentiate with our students.

All schools should be places where both adults and students learn. Unfortunately this doesn’t happen. Most of the time, teachers and administrators develop their own knowledge and skills, which they model for students. This can be dangerous if it is not done properly and could have detrimental effects on student learning and their success. The concept of continual or ongoing development creates a culture of learning throughout the school and supports educators’ efforts to engage students, expected of a lifelong learner. An organization that organizes team-based professional development or professional learning networks and expects all teachers and administrators to consistently participate — though for different purposes, a different times, in different ways — shows that the organization values and is serious about all educators performing at higher levels. As a result, the entire school is more focused and effective.

With my experiences in education, it is my belief that research has shown that teaching quality and school leadership are the most important factors in raising student achievement. For teachers, school and district leaders to be most effective, they need to continually expand their knowledge and skills to implement the best educational practices. Educators learn to help students learn at the highest levels. They need to be able to move from exposure to improvement to finally and most importantly, professional development and SUCCESS!!

‘One Size Fits One’ at Hawaii Tech Academy

‘One Size Fits One’ at Hawaii Tech Academy

Reflected in a mirror, art teacher Malia Andrus helps Alyssa Hartley with a project at the Hawaii Technology Academy. The school has quadrupled its enrollment in two years to become the fastest-growing charter school in the state.

—Dennis Oda /Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Educators there blend online learning with face-to-face instruction

The line began forming before dawn at a drab, mixed-use building overlooking Farrington Highway in Waipahu as parents vied for a chance to sign up their children for a slot at the Hawaii Technology Academy. Just a small white sign tips off passers-by to the location of the fastest-growing charter school in the state, on the second floor above a kayak store.

“One family came at midnight, and by 5 a.m. we had 51 people waiting outside,” said Jeff Piontek, an energetic New Yorker who heads the school, Hawaii’s largest charter.

Launched in 2008, the charter school has quadrupled its enrollment over two years, with 1,000 students at last count. On March 1, it opened 250 additional slots for this fall, triggering that line of parents. The school can grow so quickly despite its limited space—10,000 square feet—because its students work mostly at home. They come to the learning center, on average, twice a week for face-to-face classes, with additional time for electives.

“It’s one size fits one; it’s not one size fits all,” said Mr. Piontek, formerly the state science specialist for Hawaii’s public schools. “If you’re a 4th grader and don’t know fractions, we can teach you. If you don’t know how to conjugate a verb, we teach you. Every child has a customized learning plan.”

So-called hybrid schools that blend face-to-face teaching and online learning are one of the fastest growing models of e-learning, according to organizations such as the Vienna, Va.-based International Association for K-12 Online Learning. Experts say hybrid schools such as the Hawaii Technology Academy are trying to use this approach to do a better job tailoring teaching and learning to students’ individual strengths and weaknesses while still maintaining some face-to-face interactions.

Students at the Hawaii Technology Academy undergo a baseline assessment before they start school. Teachers review their performance every Monday and adjust each student’s agenda for the coming week. The school uses a standardized online curriculum purchased from K12 Inc., a Herndon, Va.-based e-learning company.

Academy teachers say success depends on two factors: an engaged parent and a motivated child. “Your parent or guardian is actually a teacher; they’re responsible,” said middle school teacher Tiffany Wynn. “It’s not sitting your child in front of a computer and saying, ‘Here you go, good luck!’”

‘Work at Your Own Pace’

Hawaii Tech’s students score well, with 85 percent proficient in reading and 45 percent proficient in math last year. But the school’s close connection with K12 Inc. has raised a red flag with the state auditor’s office, which is examining Hawaii’s charter school system.

The for-profit firm gets 41 percent of the school’s allotment of funds from the state. Under its contract, it also pays the principal. That means Mr. Piontek is a private employee, not a state employee like other public school principals.

“That is a huge issue with a lot of people,” said Mr. Piontek, who makes $115,000 a year. “They are afraid the curriculum company is running a public school. I would much rather be a school employee, and so would the local school board.”

The board has been trying to renegotiate its K12 contract, which was signed before Mr. Piontek was hired and runs until 2014.

‘Work at Your Own Pace’

The academy enrolls students from South Point, on the Big Island, to the North Shore of Kauai, some of them competitive surfers or performing artists who need a more flexible schedule. The school’s individualized approach has struck a chord, especially with military families and home-school students.

Mr. Piontek pulls up some profile data with a few quick strokes on his laptop: 47 percent of students came from regular public schools; 31 percent are military dependents; 20 percent were home-school students; 12 percent came from private schools; 2 percent came from other charter schools.

“I could fill the whole school with military, but we want it to be a local school,” Mr. Piontek said. “Our plan caps it at a third.” Despite the building’s bleak exterior, cheerful posters hand-lettered by students decorate the central hallway. An art teacher enlightens her pupils on the concept of proportion at one end of the hall, while biology students dissect rats in its science lab.

“I really like this school because it’s challenging,” said Joelle Lee, a soft-spoken 7th grader with a flair for drawing. “You can work at your own pace. If you get it down in most schools, you have to wait for everyone else. This one, you learn it once and you get ahead and go on to the next thing.”

Technology Evolves to Offer a Clearer View of Science

Schools incorporate computer simulations, 3-D modeling

In virtual labs that give high school students remote control of real-world lab equipment, the constraints and artificial simplicity that a 50-minute class period imposes on an experimental design fade away.

And in role-playing challenges, the technology fosters collaboration and critical thinking and relays data, but the crises themselves remain in the imaginations of the students.

Perhaps nowhere are there more diverse possibilities with great potential to transform teaching with multimedia tools than in science education. But experts say that, for teachers, it can still be a long road from a primitive depiction of electron transfer in static electricity to a lab where high school students measure the radiation in a strontium-90 isotope sample halfway across the country.

“Depending on which type of technology you’re talking about, there’s different levels of uptake,” said Albert Byers, the assistant executive director of e-learning and government partnerships for the National Science Teachers Association, in Arlington, Va. “The nexus, the teacher, is where we need to focus. The software, the technology, will follow suit.”

Teachers appear willing to embrace simple models that illustrate a scientific concept on a computer screen and allow the user to adjust variables to get different results. One example is the PhET Independent Simulations project, an initiative of the University of Colorado at Boulder that began in 2004 and is considered among the leaders in educational science simulation.

During 2010, students ran about 15 million single simulations at the PhET site, which gets funding from the National Science Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, among others. (The Hewlett Foundation also provides grant support for coverage of “deeper learning” and the economic stimulus by Education Week.) In 2011, it’s expected that the site will host 22 million simulations, according to Katherine K. Perkins, the site’s director, a far cry from the mere thousands of simulations that ran in the program’s first year.

The PhET site, which originally stood for Physics Education Technology, hosts more than 100 models that address concepts across physics, chemistry, biology, and calculus, and are available for free to teachers and students. It’s also become the object of commercial inquiries from various online content providers that wish to incorporate some of its simulations into various science curricula, a step Ms. Perkins says is necessary.

“If you open a simulation, you will see it is a really flexible tool,” she said. “But what they don’t do is they don’t come with a curriculum around them. They don’t come with any particular set of steps you have to do. They’re really just open play areas, so teachers are free to write activities around them and add specific learning goals they want to address.”

One recently developed simulation allows a user to observe how light refracts through glass, water, and other substances, with the user able to alter the color of light and the surface the light passes through. Other more recently developed simulations allow users to run mock nuclear-fission reactions, toy with the fragile gravitational relationships between the planets and sun in our solar system, and cause genetic mutations in bunnies by fiddling with their natural habitat.

‘How Science Works’

But getting beyond computer models and using real-life virtual labs on the high school level is far less widespread.

Kemi Jona, the director of the office of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education partnerships at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Ill., says one reason is that many virtual labs—which are becoming increasingly common in the undergraduate world—have material that is potentially suitable for high school use, but is difficult to understand for teachers as well as students because it is presented in an overly technical, jargon-laden manner.

Mr. Jona helps oversee Northwestern’s iLabCentral program in its effort to design virtual labs targeted toward high school teachers and students, as well as to connect those students to other existing virtual labs. The site links to 21 virtual labs from sources throughout the world, but only eight are deemed appropriate for high school students, and only one was created by the iLabs project team.

In the lab created by Mr. Jona’s team, students remotely operate a Geiger counter to measure how the intensity of radiation changes with distance, and ultimately answer the question of how much exposure to a cellphone is too much. A controlled pilot of the lab in the fall of 2009 saw 1,000 individual labs run, said Mr. Jona, while 3,700 labs have been run independently since then.

“We know we need to build out more labs so we have a range of different courses,” he said. “One lab is not going to change the whole world. But teachers are really excited about it.”

He said the site, which is free to use, is constructing other labs and is encouraging more-advanced high school students to try using the undergraduate-level labs. And while he understands that many teachers might feel more comfortable using PhET-style simulations, or even running simple, in-class experiments, he stresses that virtual labs offer a far better window into real-world science.

Often in virtual labs, he said, students need to calibrate machines to ensure accurate measurements, try to parse meaningful observations out of “noisy” or unclear data, and even run numerous trials over days or weeks to test findings for efficiency.

“We need to be teaching them that [science] is a slow, careful process,” Mr. Jona said. “You can’t do very sophisticated things [in a classroom] because they can’t fit in a 50-minute period. You only get one shot out of it, which is not how science works at all. In fact, it’s the opposite of how science works.”

Scientific Collaboration

Bruce Howard, an independent consultant and former program developer at the Center for Education Technologies at Wheeling Jesuit University, in Wheeling, W.Va., adds that collaboration is also a key element of real-world science. And it’s an element students can learn through “e-Missions,” or simulated, problem-based, learning adventures.

In e-Missions, the digital technology is used not only to model a scientific phenomenon or give data feedback, but also to help students collaborate via email, instant messaging, or videoconferencing. Wheeling Jesuit University offers 11 such missions via its Challenger Learning Center (one of about 50 such loosely affiliated centers across the country), with subjects ranging from weather catastrophes to space exploration.

One of its most comprehensive simulations is based on the 1995 eruption of a previously dormant volcano on the 7-mile-wide Caribbean island of Montserrat. In the simulation, students are given data both from the eruption and an approaching hurricane, as if the two are happening in real time, and are assigned the role of hurricane, volcano, evacuation, or communication specialist. The four must then collaborate to decide how best to protect the island’s population.

“Students are more sophisticated all the time, especially when it comes to graphics, because they’re spoiled by Hollywood,” he said. “You’re learning all those great21st-century learning skills—the collaboration, the listening skills.”

He adds that such simulations can give students science-career ideas they previously may not have considered. For example, while students know the roles of doctors and nurses, they may learn of other medical professions in a collaborative simulation in which students act as a medical team at a hospital.

“You don’t think about the radiologist, or about the phlebotomist. Those are interesting career fields also,” Mr. Howard said.

3-D Modeling Tools

At the 1,000-student Hawaii Technology Academy, a charter school based in Waipahu, just west of Honolulu, that blends face-to-face and online learning, students take the collaboration a step further.

The school’s students have collaborated with ichthyologists, who study aquatic life, and used free 3-D modeling tools like Google SketchUp to create computer images of newly discovered extinct species of fish. And high school students regularly create games and simulations for academic use by middle schoolers at the school, which is three years old and now spans grades K-12.

High tech and analog technology mix in the computer lab at Hawaii Technology Academy in Waipahu, Hawaii.

—Elyse Butler & Matt Mallams for Education Week

The school’s founder and head of school, Jeff Piontek, who was formerly Hawaii’s department of education state science specialist and before that was the New York City school system’s director of instructional technology, recognizes that not all schools can go to the same lengths to immerse so many students in multimedia creation. But he says adopting a little bit of what the Hawaii Technology Academy does at a traditional, district-run school is easier than most educators think.

“What people don’t understand is the tools are free, and if it’s not free, it’s of minimal cost,” Mr. Piontek said. “The biggest thing you need to look at is to look for a teacher or an advocate for science and using technology and let them run. Don’t tie their hands.”

The NSTA’s Mr. Byers says the use—and possibly even student-led construction—of all types of simulations will grow in time. But he warns that both creators and participants have to be sure that simulations mesh closely with instructional standards. He also adds that simulations are by no means the only area in which multimedia tools are transforming science instruction.

Content repositories that house online presentations, lessons, and videos; video games based on a scientific premise; and even mobile-phone applications that allow students to easily record and transmit scientific data from the field all have the ability to transform the science classroom, Mr. Byers says. And he hopes the movement toward standards that stress critical-thinking skills will only help the adoption of all such tools.

“The world is awash with tons of different types of learning media,” Mr. Byers said. “There is something for everyone between the two-minute video, the single simulation, and a six-week moderated simulated course. … With new standards that are more critical-thinking-aligned, that’s going to generate more curriculum adoption and professional development in support of that.”