Professional Development part of the Education Reform Network

Evaluation

Staff development that improves the learning of all students uses multiple sources of information to guide improvement and demonstrate its impact.

Rationale:

Well-designed staff development evaluation can: (1) improve the quality of current staff development efforts, and (2) determine the effects of staff development in terms of its intended outcomes. The links below support this standard:

• Taking Measure: Map out evaluation goals
  Thoughtfully preparing a plan for an evaluation ahead of the need will not only focus the program’s effort, but also help create a timeline and work plan for those involved. It may even aid in recruiting people to help with myriad tasks.
• Emphasize student learning
  Provides articles with discussion/reflection tools. Good for use with study groups.
• Critical Issue: Evaluating Professional Growth and Development
  Overview of evaluation of professional development. Provides links to model program and other resource.
• Forge a link between adult and student learning
  A Theory of Change evaluation model is a systematic approach to examining the activities, results, and context in which change occurs. This article gives an example of a Theory of Change for staff development in reading.
• Measure Results
  Provides articles with discussion/reflection tools. Good for use with study groups.
• Scaling the Elusive Summit
  The director of NSDC’s Results-Based Staff Development for the Middle Grades Initiative describes the criteria used to examine hundreds of staff development programs that were submitted for consideration by this program. She explains why so few of them reach the “summit” of staff development, which she defines as providing evidence of a positive impact on student learning.
• Conduct Evaluation
  Provides articles with discussion/reflection tools. Good for use with study groups.
• Tornado of Change
  The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) is a program that draws important distinctions between a program of proposed change and the impact that proposal has on the people expected to adopt it. This article includes a basic definition of CBAM, and describes how CBAM can be used when developing and continually evaluating staff development efforts.
• Connect teacher and student learning
  Provides articles with discussion/reflection tools. Good for use with study groups.
• The Age of Our Accountability
  Evaluating staff development programs, rather than simply assuming (or hoping) that they’re helping teachers and, ultimately, students is essential to ensuring the integrity of staff development efforts. This article includes thoughtful discussions of the nature of evaluation, its purposes, and the different levels of evaluation performed by different schools and districts.