The Educator's Professional Growth Plan; A Process for Developing Staff and Improving Instruction

by Jodi Peine

• ISBN13: 9781412949316
• ISBN10: 1412949319
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-07-26
• Publisher: Corwin Pr

Summary

'Outlines a systematic method that helps professional educators focus their energies on lasting professional growth. Strategies and templates assist teachers in reflecting on their own professional performance, setting their own learning targets, and managing their own progress toward greater professional success' - Scott Estes, Principal Glendale School, East Peoria, IL Recognising that student achievement is intrinsically linked to high-quality teaching, Jodi Peine offers an invaluable guide that helps educational leaders strengthen teachers' instructional practice with an individualised and robust professional development process. The author provides administrators and staff developers with step-by-step guidance for designing, implementing, and sustaining a professional growth plan. Grounded in research at elementary, middle, and high school levels, the process is delivered in manageable sections with reproducible forms for every step. With a refined method that includes formal data analysis, this guidebook: - Demonstrates how participants can develop their own goals and action plans - Provides current terminology and topics for individual growth plan development - Examines steps to take after completing first-generation professional growth plans - Helps redefine school improvement efforts to produce enduring systemic change The Educator's Professional Growth Plan, Second Edition, provides a targeted approach that accommodates the unique needs of individual teachers. Within a supportive context, educators can assume responsibility for their own learning, witness changes in their professional practice, and realise substantive gains in student performance.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Professional Growth: Defining the What, Why, Who, and How

What Is Professional Growth?

What Is a Professional Growth Plan?

What Is the Professional Growth Plan Process?

Why Use the Professional Growth Plan Process?

Who Can Use a Growth Plan?

Who Can Lead the Professional Growth Plan Process?

How to Implement the Professional Growth Plan Process Successfully

Encouraging New Traditions in Professional Growth

Managing the Professional Growth Plan Process

Operational Issues

Allocating Resources

Available Resources vs

Needs? - A Balancing Act

Who Has the Time?

Organizing People, Events, and Information

Forms? - How Can They Help?

Introducing the Process to Staff

The School Leader as Coach and Advisor

Identifying Areas for Professional Growth

The First of Four Phases

Targeting Professional Growth

Conducting a Personal Needs Assessment

Comparing Current Practices to Established Professional Performance Standards/Best Practice Research

Review and Understand Professional Performance Standards and Best Practices Research

The Self-Assessment Activity

Examining Relevant Student Performance Data

Facilitating Data Analysis

Linking Practice and Performance

Addressing Deficiencies and Discrepancies

Needs - Assessment and the School Leader

The Needs - Assessment Conference

The Needs Assessment Conference Record

Designing the Professional Growth Plan

The Second Phase: Plan Design

Guiding the Design Process

Establishing Professional Goals

Establishing Learner-Centered Goals

Can Goals Change?

Establishing the Questions

Creating the Essential Question

Creating Related Questions

Designing an Action Plan

Identifying Modes of Documentation

Documentation: A Product and a Process

Identifying Baseline Data

Defining Methods of Evaluation

Identifying Resource Needs

Choosing a Method for Sharing Results With the Learning Community

Finalizing the Growth Plan

Professional Growth Plans in Progress

Implementation and Monitoring

Monitoring the Process

Formal Monitoring: Progress Meetings

Informal Monitoring: Listening, Watching, Visiting

Deciding What Is Not Working and Why

Interim Sharing: What Has Happened so Far?

Troubleshooting? What Happens If. . .

Preparing for the Final Phase

Completing the Growth Plan Process

Plan Evaluation

Growth Plan Summary Activities

Summarizing the Growth Plan Experience? What Happened?

The Growth Plan Summary Conference

Evaluating Documentation of Professional Growth

Sharing With the Learning Community

Wrapping Up the Professional Growth Plan Process

The Process Continues

Second Generation Plans and Beyond

Impediments to the Process

Changes in Personnel

Inconsistent Implementation

Lack of Administrative Support

The Demands of Compliance Directives and Documentation

The Professional Growth Plan Process Is School Improvement

The School Leader as Mechanic and Change Agent

School Leader Blacklines

Participant Blacklines

References

Index

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