A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Study of School-To-Work Initiatives
Cross-Site Analysis June 1995

CRITICAL ELEMENTS OF SCHOOL-TO-WORK REFORM

ELEMENT THREE: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR TEACHERS AND STAFF

Whenever a major reform is introduced into a school system, practice in classrooms, counseling sessions, and administrative procedure must change. If it does not, the reform will be short- lived. Professional development is one route school-to-work initiatives adopt to engage school staff in the reform, ensuring that at least some will change their professional practice sufficiently to support the vision and strategies of the reform. For professional development to occur successfully, the executive of the educational system must make it a priority for that school, district, or regional entity. Like so many aspects of school-to- work, professional development conflicts with standard school schedules and logistics, which can block the effort unless an administrator in a position of some authority clears the way.

Models for professional development differ considerably among the sites studied by AED. In some cases, schools provide training through workshops or in-classroom assistance. Workshops are typically skills-based, offering training on such topics as computer-assisted instruction, interactive lesson programming, or integration of writing into vocational curriculum. In-classroom assistance offers teachers an expert assistant who observes their classroom practice and suggests ways to adapt their teaching methods and lesson plans to the reform's purpose. In other cases, professional development is more broadly defined to encompass experiences outside of school, exposing teachers to workplace realities by providing them with internship opportunities, for example. Teachers who benefit from experiential learning, of course, gain both in terms of content (increased understanding of office work in the 1990s, for example) and appreciation for experience as an alternative to learning in the classroom. In still other cases, professional development is an implicit element of a fundamental reform that empowers instructors and transforms their role into one that expects and rewards initiative. A reform that redefines instructors as professionals whose ongoing development is their own and the system's responsibility, is most likely to result in a staff who will take on school-to-work as their own: a long-standing and fundamental commitment to educational reform.

Metro Tech Vocational Technical Institute, Phoenix, Arizona

The concept of infusing academics across the Metro Tech curriculum had circulated among the staff for at least five years before the district won special Perkins Act funding for the Fusion Project, but acquiring that grant enabled the district to embark on a focused drive to integrate academics into vocational education. The leadership chose as its primary strategy the application of writing and mathematics across the curriculum and selected professional development as one approach to implementing the strategy. Fusion Project funds paid for the special reassignment of two mathematics and two English teachers to offer after-school workshops for teachers and instructional aides. Teachers who attended the writing workshops wrote job descriptions, business letters, and autobiographical sketches. In the math workshops, teachers carried out measurement and computation exercises. The four teachers also worked with vocational teachers individually, visiting their classrooms to demonstrate writing or math integration, adapting the classroom teacher's lesson plan.

Through another set of workshops, teachers learned software packages like Hypercard and Authorware, which enabled them to write their own instructional packages, and produced videos. Their final products were all packaged to run on commonplace software and described in a curriculum materials catalog circulated throughout the district. The administration also hired a business teacher to work with the entire teaching staff to help them become computer literate.

Patterson Career Center, Dayton, Ohio

Teachers at Patterson Career Center have been offered extensive inservice training opportunities to learn the skills and tools needed to prepare them for effective implementation of participatory management. School administrators have created and supported a structure which allows instructional leadership to come from the program area clusters. Teachers feel encouraged in their efforts and have responded favorably to the instructional support that they receive from other members of their cluster. At the same time, there has thus far been little provided in the way of formal instruction for academic teachers in the various vocational areas. Much of the integration that has occurred has been done on an informal basis on the individual teacher's initiative.

Roy High School, Roy, Utah

Ongoing staff development has been an important element in the reform initiative at Roy. From the outset of the process, the school has invested heavily in staff development. They have used the resources available through a nine-district consortium and the Centennial Schools for staff planning and training. This decision to invest in staff development involved most teachers in the change process and greatly influenced their willingness to endorse the changes. In some instances, teachers who had a idea for development requested and received funds. For example, two teachers, one in history and one in English, worked together to create an integrated curriculum. Other teachers visited a major business partner for an orientation; the school paid for substitutes to cover their classes.

Performance-Based Development Program, Ft. Pierce, Florida

Staff training is an important element of the Performance- Based Development Program. All staff receive Lab Management Training every summer from Jostens Learning, the company that maintains the computer-assisted instruction (CAI) system, covering the curriculum and management aspects of CAI. In addition, there is a summer workshop in peer counseling for all facilitators. Because of the nature of the CAI labs, all the teachers need to review their subjects constantly in order to maintain the breadth of knowledge necessary to cover all of the information in each of the subject units. Teachers have also taken part in major presentations and award ceremonies that support their professional development.


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