Professional Development
Professional development is a comprehensive, sustained, and intensive approach to improving school leaders’ and teachers’ effectiveness in raising student achievement. In order to be comprehensive, impactful, and yield continuous results, professional development must:
• foster collective responsibility for improved student performance
• align with local educational agency school improvement goals
• align with state achievement standards
• be facilitated by persons with both knowledge and credibility
• represent a cyclical approach to studying, planning, doing, and continuous
improvement based on a rigorous analysis of performance data
• and provide job-embedded coaching or other forms of assistance to support
the transfer of new knowledge and skills to participants