Create a targeted professional development plan that builds expertise in selected best practices
To build expertise among teachers, principals and administrators, professional development training must be focused around the goals set by the instructional focus.
Creating a targeted professional development plan means:
- Selecting a small set of best practices within a school for its professional development plans, aligned with its instructional focus.
- Designing professional development training specifically for the needs of an individual school and its teaching staff.
- Planning for changes in teachers' professional development needs over time.
- Re-focusing a school's relationship with its district so that the district adopts an approach of customer service toward its schools.
- Aligning professional development and student achievement so that teacher (and school) success is measured by students' success.
- Eliminating achievement gaps among diverse students.
Results we've achieved
From 1999 to 2003, Focus On Results has worked with the West Covinia (Calif.) Unified School District to improve its professional development programs for its teachers, focusing their training on improving classroom instruction and creating results-oriented plans for their schools.
As part of this effort, Focus On Results has helped the school district:
- Improve its Stanford Achievement Test scores by over 40 percent in three years.
- Re-focus its central office staffs around supporting teaching and learning.
- Achieve double-digit percentage growth in English and Math proficiency among students from grade 3 through grade 9, from 1999 to 2003.
- Increase its high school graduation rate from 60 percent to 69 percent in two years.