The Emerging Role of Professional Development in Education Reform
By Richard W. Riley
Secretary of Education
We are at the beginning of a series of remarkable changes that will
transform American education. The nation has its first set of National
Education Goals which establish our expectations for the performance of
the nation's schools. Soon, we will have voluntary national standards for
what students should know and be able to do in all of the core subjects.
These standards can serve as models for states as they develop their
content and performance standards. And finally, there is a revolution
underway in our thinking about the nature and use of assessments. States
are developing exciting new kinds of "performance" or "portfolio"
assessments that provide us with richer understandings of students'
knowledge of their subjects and their ability to reason.1
While setting high standards and developing assessments aligned with those
standards are key parts of systemic reform, by themselves they are not
sufficient to transform American education nor dramatically improve the
academic performance of our students. Students need opportunities for
learning in order to reach these challenging standards and teachers are
the primary creators of those opportunities. However, what it takes to
create such learning opportunities is changing. New challenging standards,
like those of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, make new
demands on teachers. In mathematics, they require teachers to have a
better understanding of the nature of mathematics, as well as how to teach
mathematics so students can solve complex problems, communicate in
mathematical terms, and reason mathematically.2
The development of national and state standards will have significant and
long-term implications for the professional development of teachers.
Providing students with opportunities for high-quality instruction will
require us tobegin to view professional development as a necessity and not
merely an add-on, and as an integral part of the daily work of teachers
rather an occasional break from classroom instruction.
Changing opportunities for professional development
Emerging standards create a need for professional development, but they
also create a unique opportunity. Standards provide a policy focus for
professional development. Too frequently, professional development
activities have been "one shot," offer limited follow-up, and are isolated
from school and district goals. This has been true of many federally
funded professional development activities as well. Most of the
professional development supported by United States Department of
Education program funds particularly under the current Chapter 1, Chapter
2 and Eisenhower Math and Science programs has been relatively brief, not
part of a comprehensive plan, and not sustained.
3
Brief professional development programs, such as half-day or one-day
workshops, are helpful for informing people about reforms, but they are
unlikely to significantly change classroom practice. Among Chapter 1
teachers, who on average participate in professional development more
often than regular classroom teachers, only one-third receive more than
four days of staff development a year. And Chapter 1 teachers' aides
receive even less.4 There also has been
little coordination among
professional development activities. For example, professional development
for early elementary grade teachers is often separate from that of their
preschool counterparts, including Head Start teachers.
Both research and current successful programs, however, have demonstrated
the value of sustained and intensive high-quality professional development
that is based on new models of teaching and learning, tied to high content
standards, and located within professional communities of teachers.5 A
study of Eisenhower-supported teacher training found that funds were more
likely to be well spent in school districts with well-focused agendas for
improvement.6
The Department is trying to encourage professional development that is
sustained, intensive and high-quality and will lead to changes in
classroom instruction and student learning. Professional development for
teachers and other school staff will need to be ongoing from recruitment
to retirement. It must focus on increasing educators' knowledge of their
subjects and pedagogical skills specific to these subjects, as well as on
general pedagogical skills. Such professional development should have a
strong research base and be an integral part of improving the school.
Professional development for school administrators should focus on
increasing their ability to recognize and foster excellent teaching and
learning. School administrators need to understand the integral role of
professional development in the operation of the school and how to
organize the school day to provide staff with opportunities for ongoing
professional development.
A new partnership
To encourage sustained, intensive high-quality professional development
will require a new partnership of the federal government with states,
universities, local school districts and schools. Such a partnership based
on cooperation is central to the Administration's education agenda. It
recognizes that education is and always has been primarily a state
responsibility. It also recognizes, however, that the federal government
can and should have a leadership role in promoting reform throughout the
nation.
The Administration's first education bill, the Goals 2000: Educate America
Act, establishes a framework for this new partnership. The bill sets into
law the six National Education Goals, promotes the development of
voluntary national standards of what students should know and be able to
do, and establishes a council to review and certify these standards. The
heart of the bill, however, is to provide resources to help states and
local school districts to involve public school officials, teachers,
parents, students and businesses in designing and reforming schools.
Through an extensive consultation process states will develop systemic
reform plans, to guide state and local efforts. They also will establish
challenging state standards of what students should know and be able to do
in the core academic subjects and to develop assessments aligned with
those standards.
Goals 2000 provides a framework for the new partnership as well as for
other federal legislation. The Improving America's Schools Act of 1993 is
the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the
largest federal investment in elementary and secondary education. The bill
is built on the principles that all students can learn to high standards,
that students living in high poverty areas need to be taught to the same
challenging state standards as other students and that schools should be
held accountable for students' progress in meeting these standards.
Professional development plays a prominent role throughout the Improving
America's Schools Act, though most notably in the Eisenhower Professional
Development Program. This program is a large formula grant program that
provides money to state and local education agencies and schools for
professional development activities. State activities will be guided by
state plans for professional development that will outline a long-term
strategy for obtaining and providing the sustained and intensive
high-quality professional development required to improve teaching and
learning. In these plans, states will identify their professional
development needs; outline a strategy for using technical assistance to
address those needs; describe how the state will work with local
districts, schools, and colleges/universities to ensure that high-quality
support is provided in the core subjects; and monitor and evaluate the
effectiveness of professional development activities.
States will also be required to include in their plans a description of
how the activities funded by the Eisenhower Professional Development
Program will be coordinated with other professional development
activities; including professional development activities sponsored by
Title I and by other federal and state programs. University-school
partnerships have a critical role to play in providing professional
development activities that will improve classroom instruction and
learning. Many of these partnerships provide high quality and sustained
professional development to teams of teachers in schools and support the
development of professional communities within and across schools.
States may use Eisenhower funds to implement their professional
development plans, which may include revising licensing requirements for
teachers, other school staff, and administrators to align them with
challenging state content and performance standards, providing financial
or other incentives for teachers to become certified by the National Board
for Professional Teaching Standards, and developing or supporting
professional development networks of educators.
For the local educational agency, the Eisenhower program will be pivotal
for professional development. Districts will submit professional
development plans that reflect the needs of local schools to states and
describe a strategy, tied to state content and performance standards, for
addressing those needs. Of the funds received by districts, up to 20
percent will be spent on districtwide professional development activities,
with at least 80 percent spent on professional development of teachers and
other staff at individual schools in a manner determined by the teachers
and staff and consistent with the LEA's plan.
The Improving America's Schools Act focuses professional development for
teachers and administrators on providing students with the opportunities
to meet state performance standards. It also asks states to develop a
knowledge driven professional development system that is aligned with
challenging state content and performance standards and develop procedures
that rely on assessment and peer review to complement or replace existing
credit-based certification requirements.
There is increasing recognition of the need for professional development
and a better understanding that professional development needs to become
an integral part of the daily life of the school. The federal government
can play a constructive role in promoting professional development by
establishing a new partnership with states and locals. Such a partnership
based on cooperation needs to recognize the key roles all levels of
government have to play in reforming American education. The Goals 2000:
Educate America Act and the Improving America's Schools Act of 1993 are
attempts to redefine this partnership and to provide support to states and
locals as they go about the hard work of transforming America's schools.
Notes
1. S.H. Fuhrman and B. Malen, eds.,
The Politics of Curriculum and
Testing (New York: The Falmer Press, 1991).
2. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Curriculum and
Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics, (Reston, Va: National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1989).
3. For example, a study of training supported by the Title II/Eisenhower
program found that the median amount of training teachers received over a
one year period was six hours. M. Knapp, A. Zucker, N. Adelman, M. St.
John, The Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Education Program: An
Enabling Resource for Reform (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
Education, 1991).
4. M.A. Millsap, et al., Chapter 1 in Public Schools (Cambridge,
MA:
Abt Associates, 1993).
5. D.K. Cohen, M.W. McLaughlin, and J.E. Talbert, Teaching for
Understanding: Challenges for Policy and Practice (San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1993).
6. M. Knapp, A. Zucker, N. Adelman, M. St. John, The Eisenhower
Mathematics and Science Education Program: An Enabling Resource for
Reform, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, 1991).