Components of a
Comprehensive Staff Development Plan
(These notes were prepared by Hayes Mizell,
director of the Program for Student Achievement at the Edna McConnell Clark
Foundation, when he was asked: "According to your best thinking, what
does a comprehensive staff development plan look like?")
1. The overarching purpose of staff development is to enable staff to increase
the academic performance and healthy development of children enrolled in
the school system.
2. In the context of #1 above, all staff development is directly linked
to and designed to advance the priority goals and objectives of the board
of education and the superintendent, OR, depending on the philosophy and
governance structure of the school system, the goals and objectives of individual
school site councils (but not both).
3. The school board/superintendent (or school, where applicable) vests in
one person the authority and responsibility for ensuring that the assessment
of staff development needs, and the coordination, conception, planning,
design, implementation and evaluation of all staff development is linked
to and advances the goals and objectives in #2 above. [This does not mean
this person or his/her office "provides" the staff development.]
At least annually, this person makes a public presentation and comprehensive
written report to the school board describing to what extent staff development
has advanced the goals and objectives in #2 above.
4. Each staff development activity, whether funded by local or external
funds, is linked to and advances the goals and objectives in #2 above. Neither
the school system nor individual schools seek or accept funds for staff
development that do not advance the goals and objectives in #2 above.
5. School board policy provides that the school system's office of research
and/or evaluation will use a portion of its budget to evaluate (or be accountable
for the evaluation of the effects of staff development), and that it will
collaborate with the person in #3 above in designing such evaluations and
analyzing their results.
6. Consistent with #2 above, and subsequent to guidelines developed by the
person in #3 above, staff development is conceived, planned, and designed
by persons, or their representatives, whom the staff development is intended
to benefit.
7. Prior to each staff development activitiy, persons scheduled to participate
prepare a one-page declaration delineating (a) what they are seeking to
learn through their participation, and (b) how they intend to apply what
they learn. At the conclusion of the staff development activity, each participant
prepares a one-page statement describing (a) what they learned from the
staff development activity and (b) how they intend to apply what they learned
in their school/classroom. This information is shared at the school level,
and with the offices referenced in #3 and #5 above.
8. Based on the recommendations of the person in #3 above, the superintendent
promulgates generic quality criteria for effective staff development. All
staff development meets these criteria.
9. Each classroom teacher and school administrator participates in and is
compensated for a minimum of two and a half hours of staff development each
week during the school year. This staff development occurs during the regular
school day. Each school's faculty determines how to restructure the daily
schedule to accommodate this staff development.
10. The annual performance review of teachers includes a discussion and
assessment of their participation in staff development activities during
the past year, and the effects on the teachers' classroom performance. The
annual performance review of school administrators includes a discussion
and assessment of their participation in staff development activities during
the past year, and the effects on the principal's performance in advancing
the goals and objectives in #2 above.
#
If you'd like to respond to these
ideas, you can contact Hayes Mizell at Mizell@middleweb.com
Also, you can read one response from a school
district administrator to Mizell's ideas.
Read other articles about staff development
by Hayes Mizell
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