A New Vision for Teacher Professional Growth & Support

This report combines research, past experience with urban districts, and deep analysis of three different school systems—Duval County Public Schools, located outside Jacksonville, Florida; District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS); and the charter network Achievement First—to identify six steps school system leaders can take to move beyond traditional  professional development training and toward a "professional growth and support" model that is integrated into each system's strategy for instructional improvement.  With each step, we describe the strategy, share insights from spending and practice data across school systems, highlight challenges, and provide some tips for taking action.

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UPDATE: In 2017, ERS released a new report on teacher professional learning: Igniting the Learning Engine: How school systems accelerate teacher effectiveness and student growth through Connected Professional Learning.  Drawing on new case studies of Sanger Unified, in California; District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS); Duval County Public Schools, in Floria; and the charter network Achivement First, we trace how these systems have reorganized resources to create professional learning models that are truly connected to the every day work of teachers and to the district's instructional improvement approach - and are seeing promising student results.

Read 2017's Igniting the Learning Engine

Other Teacher Professional Growth and Support tools in this series (2013):

• Professional Growth & Support System Self-Assessment: A self-assessment tool that allows a system to gauge its alignment with the principles for effective Professional Growth & Support.
• Professional Growth & Support Spending Calculator: A detailed set of worksheets and methodology to enable school systems to quantify their spending on teacher Professional Growth & Support.
• Professional Growth & Support Interactive Presentation: A narrated PowerPoint presentation that introduces the key concepts and findings around teacher Professional Growth & Support. Mid-presentation exercises encourage audience members to reflect on their system’s Professional Growth & Support investments.
• Promising Practices in Professional Growth & Support: Case Studies of Aspire Public Schools, Teach Plus, Achievement First, and Agile Mind: These case studies profile four highly successful approaches to expanding teaching effectiveness. The organizations invest in a variety of activities that are consistent with ERS’ Eight Principles of Strategic Professional Growth & Support Systems. These include investments in integrated professional growth models, instructional guidance systems, teacher leaders, and teaming around data.