Groton-Dunstable University Empowers Teachers' Professional Development
The job of a modern educator is a tough one. In addition to the hard work and somewhat unpredictable hours, all licensed teachers are required by the state to participate in a minimum amount of ongoing "professional development" (PD) training during the five-year span of their license or that license to teach in the state of Massachusetts will not be renewed.
Given that the state regulations are a complex web of confusing definitions and complicated rules, professional development is a rich opportunity for external consultants to ply their wares to busy educators and school districts trying to stay in compliance.
However in the Groton-Dunstable district an innovative internal program led by Assistant Superintendant Katie Novak makes professional development much more effective and efficient as well as easier to consume. "Our staff is our greatest resource and we are committed to elevating, celebrating, and developing them through meaningful PD in the coming years," says Dr. Novak.
So what is this all about? As many are aware, educators disappear once a month for professional development activities. At GDRSS many of them spend that day attending various learning sessions tailored to meet their needs as part of this program, which essentially amounts to a mini-university inside the walls of Groton Dunstable.
The PD learning opportunities include book clubs focused on a particular topic, multi-part mini-courses taught by a GDRSS staff member, and even graduate level college-credit courses taught during the school summer break. One unique aspect of this GDRSS system is that it is not limited to just teaching staff-paraprofessionals are included in both training sessions and planning.
At the core of all this activity is the professional development committee made up of teaching staff, administrative staff and administrators who organize the various programs and handle communications and enrollment details. According to Dr. Novak, "We couldn't have made such great strides in our professional development program without our PD committee. Our committee, made up of seven amazing teachers and two administrators, collected data from all stakeholders on their professional development needs, offered differentiated options to meet those needs, and evaluated offerings and shared results with our colleagues."
Of the three different styles of PD activity in the program, the so-called "book club" is the most prevalent. The name might mislead you into believing this is a typical suburban book club with Oprah-approved novel in one hand and white wine in the other. No, these book clubs are centered around non-fiction books describing key concepts of interest to the faculty and staff.
In addition to meeting to discuss the book's contents, group members also try to put the concepts they learn into practice and then get back together with their fellow group members to share their experiences. This year there were 18 book clubs operating during the school year. The books were chosen by an internal survey of staff and all 18 groups had five or more members.
The most popular of the three programs, however, is what the PD committee calls their "series." These are, in essence, mini-courses taught by staff members on a particular topic ranging from education theory to content topics such as science and math.
The committee runs an internal "request for proposal" process whereby staff members can submit proposals for courses they would like to lead. This year 20 proposals for 10-hour, multi-part sessions were selected. An enrollment of 20 participants is needed for the course to go forward and all 20 received that minimum, making this series a huge success.
In fact one of the few complaints was that participants had to choose between two desired sessions because they were being offered in the same time slot. This year the PD committee is running an extended RFP process throughout the summer to allow staff members more time to develop session proposals.
The final program offering is a more traditional graduate level program of summer courses developed in partnership with Fitchburg State University. This summer college faculty will teach the courses but next summer qualified GDRSS staff members supervised by Fitchburg State will teach the courses. Course participants receive either graduate credit or state-approved professional development points for successful completion.
All this is playing well to its audience. A recent internal survey shows a whopping 26 percent overall improvement in staff satisfaction with professional develop activities at GDRSS. The PD committee is not sitting on their laurels though. Continuing with their customer-driven approach, they have responded to feedback and have lengthened the RFP process for new training sessions, improved the training session process, expanded the participation of paraprofessional staff and have committed to producing a glossy brochure at the end of the summer to serve as the course catalog for what we like to call GDRSS University.
