Lessons Learned about Going to Scale with Effective Professional Development

Iris R. WeissHorizon Research, Inc.

February 2011

• Consider a PD program for K-5 teachers:– Multi-year

– Teachers address either mathematics or science

– Summer workshops and academic year component

– Experienced, well-prepared PD providers

Teacher survey

• 50% “have made substantial changes in their instruction based on the PD.”

• The professional development leaders wants to understand why some are at least attempting to change, and others aren’t.

Mathematics versus science?

No difference

Number of years teaching?No difference

District A versus District B?

35% of teachers in District A report changes in their instruction

80% of teachers in District B report changes in their instruction

District A versus District B?• Discuss at your tables (10 minutes):

– What might explain the low “take-up” in District A?

– What might the project do about it?

Raise your hands if you talked about:

• Extent of principal support

• Extent of parent support

• Availability of appropriate instructional materials

• District policies that got in the way, e.g., district assessments not well-aligned with the vision

Check to see…

• If teachers have the necessary materials/ supplies

• The extent of alignment between PD and:– Student instructional materials– Student assessments– Teacher evaluation policies

Consider…

• Providing PD for principals to help ensure buy-in

• Involving parents, same reason

Professional Development

TeacherKnowledge and Skills

TeachingPractice

StudentOutcomes

Simplified Logic Model for Professional Development

Principal Support

Parent Support

Appropriate Instructional

Materials

Policies Aligned with the Vision

• High quality PD is not enough– going to scale with improved teaching and learning requires aligning the entire system; you must attend to all of these factors in planning a program.

• The KMD project has identified research findings and practice-based insights on effective professional development.

http://www.mspkmd.net/

Knowledge Reviews• Currently 11 knowledge reviews on

deepening teacher content knowledge

For example:– Engaging teachers with challenging

mathematics content– Engaging teachers in analyzing student work

Knowledge Reviews

• Currently 10 knowledge reviews on developing and supporting teacher leaders

For example:– Developing the knowledge and skills for

teacher leadership– Teacher leaders providing classroom support

to teachers through demonstration lessons/modeling

Going to Scale with Effective Professional Development Requires

• Having a good sense of where you are trying to go;

• Understanding the current system in relation to that vision; and

• Strategic leadership to move the system forward.

Strategic Leadership: Key Components of Reform Work

1. Designing and implementing interventions

2. Garnering support from key stakeholders

3. Aligning policies

4. Scaling up interventions

Strategic Leadership: Key Components of Reform Work

• Each component is necessary, but no one of them is sufficient for strategic leadership.

• Each component interacts with the others, and should not be considered in isolation.

Strategic Leadership: Key Components of Reform Work

Designing Interventions

Scaling Up Interventions

Garnering Support from

Key Stakeholders

Aligning Policy

Designing and Implementing Interventions

• Understand the priority needs in your context

• Select effective, promising interventions

• Pilot the interventions to provide “existence proofs”

There are inherent trade-offs

• If you use time/resources to help teachers apply what they are learning in PD to their practice, you can’t spend as much time on other PD goals (e.g., focusing on deepening teacher content knowledge).

Garnering Support from Key Stakeholders

• Identify the key stakeholders in your context

• Build support for the reform vision as well as the direct interventions

• Leverage the support of influential stakeholders

Aligning Policies

• Identify the most influential policies and have a plan for dealing with them

• Leverage aligned policies to move forward

• Seek and create opportunities to align policies

Potentially Important Policies

• Curriculum

• In-service education

• Teacher evaluation

• Teacher recruitment/orientation

• Student assessments

• Student assessments

Scaling Up Interventions

• Develop human resources for scaling up

• Develop infrastructure for scaling up

• Create a system for maintaining quality in scaling up

Developing Human Resources

• In professional development systems, districts are challenged with having a large enough cadre of well-qualified leaders who can provide and support professional development.

• In developing PD systems, you need to negotiate trade-off between in-depth preparation of PD providers and scaling up as quickly as possible.

Create a system for maintaining quality in scaling up

• Quality control is especially important when professional development is provided by multiple individuals

PD Program Vignette

• Review the PD Program Vignette

• Consider which one you would implement, and why.

Some Strengths in Common

• Include both summer and academic year sessions

• Focus on the instructional materials teachers are expected to use

• Involve key stakeholders

Some Weaknesses in Common

• Do not appear to take teacher turnover/ changing grades into account

Some Weaknesses in Common

• Evaluation is limited to impact on students

• If student achievement is not improving, won’t know why; need to monitor classroom practice.

Who provides the PD

Plan 1: Instructional materials developers

• PD likely to be high quality

• But, will take a long time to reach a large number of teachers

Who provides the PD

Plan 2: Instructional materials developers train coaches

• Reaches a large number of teachers in a relatively short time

• But depends on PD providers with less expertise

• And especially when novice PD providers are involved, need to monitor quality of implementation and provide support as needed.

Stakeholder involvement

Plan 1: Principals

• School level leadership is important for instructional change

• Does not involve other key stakeholders

Stakeholder involvement

Plan 2: Parents

• Parent/community support is important for going to scale

• Does not involve other key stakeholders

Reflection Questions

• Individually, respond to the six questions on the reflection sheet.

• You will have approximately 5 minutes

Reflection Questions

• At your table, discuss questions 1 and 2

• Select (and prioritize) the top three lessons your table might share with the larger group.

• You will be asked to share your top lesson (or a back-up lesson if your top one is already mentioned.)

• You will have 15 minutes

• Discuss questions 3 and 4 at your table.

• You will have 10 minutes.

Tally

Major/minor barrierMajor/minor facilitator

• Curriculum• In-service education • Teacher evaluation• Teacher recruitment/orientation• Student assessments

• Discuss question 5 at your table.

• Select a strategy your table wants to share with the larger group.

• You will have 10 minutes.

Lessons from the MSP Case Studies

• Design and implement professional development that is both feasible and likely to be effective with the teachers in the particular context.

– Choose interventions that both address perceived needs explicitly and are likely to contribute to long-term improvements by focusing on more entrenched issues.

– Recognize the pros and cons when considering incentives for teacher participation in professional development.

– Have a plan for addressing varying levels of teacher knowledge and skills.

– Provide support for application of enhanced teacher content knowledge to the classroom.

• Consider how to engage a range of important stakeholders whose support is important for efforts to deepen teacher content knowledge.

– Identify the stakeholders whose understanding and support will be crucial for the work to be sustained.

– Involve stakeholders in activities that help develop a shared vision around deepening teacher content knowledge.

– Anticipate that changes in stakeholders may create new opportunities and/or barriers to sustainability.

• Help ensure that key policies in the system are aligned with the vision underlying the reform efforts.

– Identify the most pertinent and influential policies and align interventions with those policies.

– Work to align institutional policies with the program vision.

– Help teachers deal with unaligned policies.

• Use data to inform decisions, improve the quality of the interventions, and provide evidence to encourage support for system change. – Use data to inform decisions about selecting,

implementing, and adapting interventions.

– Use data to ensure an acceptable level of quality during implementation and scale-up, and to encourage support for system change.

• Work to develop capacity and infrastructure to strengthen teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical skills, both during the funded period and beyond. – Consider from the get-go how to develop capacity for

long-term sustainability.

– Plan for broader scale implementation as you develop the initial program plan.

– Plan for succession of program leaders.

– Identify and develop the infrastructure needed for the work to be sustained.