SPOTLIGHT ON THE NORTH CAROLINA PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS

PURPOSE

Why professional development standards and why this tutorial?

Professional development is the means by which educators acquire or expand existing knowledge, skills, beliefs, and attitudes necessary to create effective learning experiences for all students. Professional development is the opportunity for purposeful and intentional continued growth. Professional learning can take many forms drawing on the perspectives, talents, and contributions of educators (K-12 and higher education) and other individuals who impact schools and student learning.(3)

Without standards, professional development is "open to interpretation" by those planning, presenting, and participating. Interpretations may vary greatly and likely, there will exist differences in goals, purposes, and expected learning outcomes as well as differences in the expectations for follow up, implementation, and continued learning. It is also very likely that there will be differences in defining what is considered high-quality professional development. North Carolina’s professional development standards are grounded in the work of the National Staff Development Council (NSDC) – work based upon the extensive research of Georgea M. Sparks (1983) who introduced the context/process/content schema as a way of organizing the research findings.(4)

Context, process, and content standards are all critical to ensure that professional development improves student learning. Ignoring one dimension diminishes the likelihood that intended results will be achieved.

Context standards address the culture of the organization and describe critical structures or "conditions" that must be present for effective professional development to occur and to be sustained.

Process standards address the "how" of professional development and describe the learning processes used in the acquisition of new knowledge and skills.

Content standards address the "what" of professional development. Content decisions are based on careful review of multiple data sets including student and teacher data.

The purpose of this tutorial is to increase educator understanding of the State standards while expanding the vision for the professional development of educators. The ultimate goal is high-quality professional development experiences for educators and school leaders in North Carolina. Understanding that "school improvement" is continuous work, professional development must be ongoing as well.

The standards are designed to be used to assess current professional development practices as well as to guide the planning, delivery, follow up, and evaluation of future professional development experiences. The standards are comprehensive and address both individual and organizational change. Additionally, the standards direct shifts from fragmentation to strategic, from district-focused to school-focused, from transmission by 'experts' to learning communities, from generic skills to content-specific skills, from training conducted away from the job to job-embedded learning, from the thinking that professional development is a frill that can be cut to the realization that professional development is a cornerstone strategy, and from targeting teachers as the primary recipients to continuous improvement for everyone who affects student learning.

It is critical that all professional development be designed based on the best knowledge of effective practices in the field. The standards guide comprehensive professional development planning resulting in a balanced program of professional development as opposed to professional development "events."

Questions for Thought

1. How will the shifts described in this section change professional development at the school level? At the district level? At the State level?
2. How will the shifts impact student achievement?

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