Level 5: Student Learning Outcomes

1. The school has a PD committee that is comprised of various district employees.
2. The goal of the school is listed as "Improve student achievements as measured by standardized tests, grades and behavior.    
3. P14 lists a goal of PD as "increasing student achievement."
4. In 2011-2012 grades K-2 teachers received PD in guided reading, comp strategies, When Readers Struggle, Writers Workshop, Assessments, Beginning Writing, Genre Writing & the Use of rubrics.  Other grade levels received other training as well.  Math teachers received additional training, but I was not sure if this included Primary/elementary teachers or not. (P7).
5. Under "Addressing Student Learning Needs" on P9, it also said, "A determination was made to include writing in the content area, differentiated instruction, support to diverse learners and using assessment to inform instruction."
6. Section 2B said that when discussing goals/objectives for the upcoming year "parental input was sought through parent conferences, school events, PTO, [and] ECAC." p14
7. Key Data Sources for assessing PD needs were listed as:  classroom observations, review of student assignments & assessments (summative & state), student demographic info., attendance & disciplinary records, teacher requests/needs, CAPA recommendations -  p14.
8. After listing what each grade band of teachers would be working on for PD, they listed the following ways to measure their success: formative & summative assessments, Read 180, Study Island, Unit assessments, Learnia results, F & P benchmark assessments, DIEBELS, High frequency word lists, report card grades, writing prompts & NJASK/HSPA/ACCESS scores p23
9. On p24 they said that all these things were data driven, "teachers review student work & student achievement data to make decisions regarding PD.  They also stated that "Numerous opportunities are in place to evaluate the program & adjust as needed (Teacher input, student achievement data, curriculum evals).

Personal Thoughts in Comparison with The Article

Points 1 & 6. I didn't find any areas that showed that affective outcomes (attitude and dispositions) were measured.  The Guskey article also suggested that you could include "results from questionnaires and structured interviews with students, parents, teachers and administrators."  -49.   To me, I felt that any input from students and parents was either not mentioned or not done.  Furthermore, to say that you get input from parent conferences, school events, PTO ... that seems a bit of a stretch to me.  Parents that are at conferences b/c of concerns are typically more concerned with their child than giving PD input; parents at school events are often focused on their child's play/presentation/assembly, etc.  And the PTO makes up a very small and highly dedicated group of parents - not exactly a group that is usually representative of all types of students, especially lower achieving or struggling students.

Points 2 - 5: Improving/increasing student achievement is VERY VAGUE.  Just about anything that you do can be related back to this goal.  Which is probably why it appears they tried practically every method out there.  Over and over again, I heard Wagner saying, "Simply put, the individual teacher, school or district with ten priorities has none." (Wagner - 66)!  (Side note: Check TEN or fewer areas for PD!  A survey that was FOUR pages long!  Seriously?).  It was hard to look at student learning outcomes, because I didn't know where to start!  They are looking at so many things talked about.  Should I look at how guided reading and comprehension strategies and When Readers Struggle, etc. affected achievement?  Or writing in the content areas, differentiation and support to diverse learners?  I took it as the first were the main focuses of the PD with the latter (differentiation, diverse learner support, etc.) would be talked about within the PD.  Correct me if I am wrong.  With so many priorities, it certainly seemed like nothing was a priority!

Points 7 & 8: This is where I tried to link the data sources with the PD.  Because the goal is to see if the PD worked or "how did the professional development activity affect students?" (p49).
PD "Focus"  --------  Data Source that could provide info on the PD effectiveness
Guided Reading - classroom observation, review of assignments/assessments
Comprehension Strategies - classroom observation, review of assignments/assessments
Writers Workshop - classroom observation, review of assignments/assessments
Assessments - F & P benchmark assessments, DIEBELS
Beginning Writing - classroom observation, review of assignments/assessments; writing prompts & scores

Genre Writing & The Use of Rubrics, review of assignments/assessments; writing prompts & scores
The data sources not mentioned above:
Read 180 & Study Island - there was no PD on either of these, so to me, how does that actually work to see if the PD was effective?  I don't think Study Island is specific enough to show actual comprehension strategies - maybe it could show you how they did on main idea or cause and effect, but I don't think it would show comprehension strategies.  Also, as a special education teacher, that made me cringe, b/c I know how many of my kids just click through it because they can't read it at grade level.  I felt the same about Unit assessments & grade cards - they are both usually a hodge podge of many skills, not just one.  To use these, you would have to break them down item by item.  I have never used Learnia.  I did not see where High Frequency word Lists fit.

Overall: Many of these things don't tie in or won't be pulled together without dialogue after getting started (like the assessments - how did it go?  What results did you get?  How will that effect future instruction?  Ok, now what are the results & where do you go from here?).  To say that they are being looked at by classroom observation or review of assignments is not enough.  I know how that is at my school - is just isn't going to happen without a plan in place to say WHEN you have to meet!  I guess overall I was not impressed with their Level of Step 5.

This plan was too long and too involving for the teachers to be expected to do any kind of work! What do YOU think?