Professional Growth & Support System Self-Assessment

The Professional Growth & Support System Self-Assessment helps school systems evaluate their current Professional Growth & Support strategy against the Eight Principles of Strategic Professional Growth & Support. In each section, school leaders can identify the statement that most closely aligns with their system’s current reality, and tally the points for each principle. Lower numbers indicate the principles and practices where a system has the most room for growth, and will help leaders prioritize the next steps of their system’s evolution.

This Self-Assessment is part of a series of publications and tools devoted to teacher Professional Growth & Support. For more on the Eight Principles, as well as key step that will move school systems toward a more strategic approach to teacher professional growth, please see:

• A New Vision for Teacher Professional Growth & Support: Six Steps to a More Powerful School System Strategy. This white paper draws on research, ERS experience with urban school systems, and detailed analyses of three case studies to present a new vision for building teacher effectiveness—one which moves beyond traditional “training” and is instead integrated into the essential instructional improvement activities that high-performing schools undertake.
• 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.