An article in Education Week this week talks about one of the potential reasons why students in the United States perform worse on international standardized tests than students in other industrialized countries: the quantity and quality of professional development that we engage in. While other countries spend time on sustained projects and meetings that directly work to improve instruction, in the United States teachers meet sporadically about varying topics that do not connect together in a unified manner.
This American style of development is predominantly what is offered in Baltimore City, and it offers little real help for teachers who constantly struggle in the city schools. We have days off on occasion and North Avenue has sessions intended to help teachers improve, but they are by no means linked from month to month, and, from what I have heard, what is done is not even done effectively. MathWorks, the new elementary/middle school math program, seems to be one of the first efforts to create a sustained, continuous program that works to help teachers improve their craft. In these meetings, teachers informally gather and discuss math content and different strategies for teaching it. However, still missing from this program are group efforts of writing lessons and analyzing, as a group, their effectiveness in the classroom through video analysis or direct observation, which is one of the most successful components of the lesson-study model used in Japan to train and develop teachers.
In order to ensure that teachers in Baltimore and the rest of the country are as effective in the classroom as teachers around the world, it is essential to reform the ongoing professional development provided for teachers.
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I can see how connections links are made between the lack of consistent and quality professional development and student performance. I have had various experience with professional development in Baltimore and agree with the article that the professional development in the United States is not being utilized effectively.
In my first year of teaching, I would travel to my content specific development trainings since there were only first year teachers teaching my subject. The training provided some useful information, but mostly it was an opportunity to network with other educators. Many of us had high hopes that we would hold monthly outings as a content group, but these efforts quickly faded.
I am grateful for the BCPSS content coordinator for World and Classical Languages. He is eager to advertise development opportunities outside of the prescribed PD days. I participated in a multi-Saturday development session on multi-cultural curriculum last year that provided me with excellent training in my content.
This year by school has opted to dedicate half of an entire school day for professional development. Each Wednesday we meet as an entire staff, in teaching teams and also in content specific groups. This schedule change suggests a dedication to professional development, but there are few additional supports given to the staff to truly improve upon our craft. I am most productive during this time when I team plan with the other Spanish teacher. We bounce ideas off of each other and create engaging lessons. Many of the staff members seem to be disillusioned by the productivity of professional development and do not take the half days seriously. I do believe this time could be used to create a more linear and cohesive curriculum as a school and give all the educators an opportunity to share with one another and improve our classrooms.
Baltimore City could stand to develop its professional development strategies in order to create more effective teachers.
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