Professional Development

*AEPD Consortium Launches New Initiative . . . Technical Assistance for Professional Development Planning: Building Local Capacity through Collaborative Professional Development Planning

Ok. It's not really a new initiative . . . in truth, we've been working with local programs on professional development planning all along . . .

But our emphasis is changing - and in several ways. For one thing, now when we work with local programs, the "planning" often includes more than just figuring out what workshops to have, when to have them, and who will do the presenting. We've gone from "What, When, and Who" . . . to "What, When, and Who, and How and Why through Ongoing Collaborative Planning." At least ideally.

Yes, we do still respond to those calls from co-op directors who need six hours of training on the first Saturday in September; after all, it is a foot in the door. But, in addition, we really like to work with the folks at local programs - preferably professional development planning teams - as they develop and implement their professional development plans. (Note that the professional development plan still might include traditional workshops presented by the Consortium - but not necessarily.) So, how might this work?

First, consider that a strong professional development system (from planning to implementation) is likely to include leadership with these characteristics and components:

• support from the "top" (the Director and other administration) in terms of encouragement, thoughtful advice, willingness to provide needed resources, and willingness to support group decision making;
• a lead facilitator (perhaps a professional development coordinator, or maybe the Director) to lead/facilitate the professional development planning and implementation process. This person should have vision, a background in adult literacy education and in professional development for teachers, and group processing skills; and
• a willing and thoughtful professional development planning team who represent the various components of your program.

Then, after the facilitator is on board, and the team is selected, they can begin to work on the Planning Process which should be ongoing and flexible enough to meet needs (individual and programmatic) as they arise throughout the year.

This process includes: needs assessment process - gathering and making sense of data; identifying resources; identifying options; then "putting it all together" into a program-wide "professional development plan" which is publicized and implemented.

So, where to start? Actually, I'd like to propose that there is more than one logical place to begin. And . . . there are various ways that those of us who provide technical assistance for professional development planning (i.e. representatives of the AEPD Consortium) can help. Consider the two scenarios below. The first describes a comprehensive long-term professional development planning/technical assistance process. The second describes an important - but more narrowly focused - professional development planning/technical assistance process.

Situation: OK. You're responsible for planning the professional development for your local adult education program - you could be the director or a lead teacher . . . but, let's say you're the newly hired professional development coordinator. Though you've been in this position only a few weeks, you've been teaching adult education classes at night for several years, so you have some ideas.... Further, the director supports professional development, is willing to invest needed resources, and has encouraged you to get a team together and try to give it a shot. So, you've got the support, and you're optimistic. But where, exactly, do you start? And what "technical assistance" might be helpful?

What Happens? Since you're new at this, you decide to call the AEPD Consortium Liaison for suggestions. Together, you decide that you'd like to proceed through each of the steps listed above (you're feeling optimistic and ambitions). You talk about the process of selecting a team - which you think may take two or three weeks to pull together - and decide to have your first professional development planning meeting in about a month. The liaison (or others from the Consortium who will make up your professional development planning technical assistance team) will attend and help facilitate this first meeting. At your first meeting, you focus on ways of determining professional development needs and interests of your teachers (needs assessment). Then, as you proceed through the steps, you will maintain close contact with the Consortium team, calling, e-mailing, and meeting on an as-needed basis throughout the year.

Situation: Your program is fairly small and there are lots of demands on everyone's time (there's a new assessment system to be reckoned with, for instance). You have taught for several years, and you've been coordinating professional development on a part-time basis at your local program for a couple of years. Most of your resources have gone to planning quality inservice training two times a year, with a few alternatives for folks who couldn't/didn't go to the regular sessions. You have limited resources, but you would like to enlarge the opportunities for your teachers.

What Happens? You call the Liaison. Together you decide you would like to begin to try some options, but you aren't exactly sure where to begin. You know there is a small group of teachers who have already expressed a desire to explore and develop resources for teaching numeracy. And you've been thinking about establishing some sort of mentoring program for new teachers. You decide that perhaps the most cost-effective way to proceed would be to have a professional development planning focus group as part of your fall in-service. The Liaison agrees to come and help facilitate this focus group, and to provide as-needed technical assistance throughout the year. You have the meeting, lots of ideas are generated, and the group decides that they are particularly interested in two areas. First, they would like to have an on-going curriculum development initiative, where lessons and experiences (what worked and what did not) are prepared and shared. The Liaison agrees to meet with this group and to help them get started and to be available as they proceed throughout the year. As well, some of the new teachers are definitely interested in being mentored by the more experienced teachers. To reduce the isolation, they are also interested in developing on-going "partnering" relationships with each other. The Liaison helps facilitate the development of the partnering relationships during the in-service focus group. Then, you and the Liaison and a couple of your more experienced teachers agree to get together to discuss the logistics of setting up a mentoring program. During the year, you work on all three of these initiatives, calling, e-mailing, and meeting with the Liaison as needed.

Of course, you may be asking yourself: "Why Bother?" There are lots of reasons . . . happier teachers who are more willing to "buy-in" to professional development (since they're included and feel valued); and better instruction (since teachers are getting what they really need); both of which lead, ultimately, to more student success.

So, what next? If you work with (or collaborate with) one of the 56 Adult Education Programs supported by the AEFLA (the Adult Education Family Literacy Act), your program is eligible for technical assistance for professional development planning. Your Director (or other administrator responsible for professional development planning) should feel free to call the AEPD Consortium Liaison or representatives of any of the four AEPD Consortium Professional Development Centers listed below.

So....give us a call!

ESL Professional Development Center-Texas A & M University-Kingsville
Ms. Patricia Dehesus-Lopez, Director
(361) 593-2749
patricia.lopez@tamuk.edu

ESL Professional Development Center - University of Texas at San Antonio
Ms. Rachel Walsh, Director
(210) 458-5875
rwalsh@lonestar.utsa.edu

ABE/ASE Professional Development Center - North Harris Montgomery Community College District
Ms. Janell Baker, Director
(281) 618-1174
janell.baker@nhmccdd.edu

ABE/ASE Professional Development Center - Region 20 ESC
Dr. Lynee Bennett, Director
(210) 370-5239
lynee.bennett@esc20.k12.tx.us

AEPD Consortium Liaison - Texas A & M University - College Station
Dr. Victoria Hoffman
(409) 862-6522 or (800) 441-7323
hoffman@coe.tamu.edu

*NOTE: The Adult Education Professional Development (AEPD) Consortium is composed of a group of special projects sponsored by the Adult and Community Education Division of the Texas Education Agency (TEA). The charge of the (AEPD) Consortium is to provide/enhance/facilitate professional development for the staffs (primarily teachers and administrators) of the 56 TEA-sponsored Adult Education Co-ops and their collaborators and partners. (The author of this selection, Victoria Hoffman, is Liaison for the AEPD Consortium, and may be reached at (409) 862-6522 or hoffman@coe.tamu.edu. For many years the work of the Consortium has focused primarily on direct services to teachers,  including workshops, institutes, and classroom technical assistance. But now our focus is expanding...

Victoria Hoffman, Ph.D., is the Project Director of the Adult Literacy Clearinghouse, a special project of the Texas Center for Adult Literacy and Learning at Texas A & M University. She also serves as Liaison for the Adult Education Professional Development Consortium (AEPDC). Her Ph.D. from the University of Texas is in Educational Psychology; her area is learning, cognition, and instruction; and her major focus is the education of adults. Victoria has taught psychology, educational psychology, sociology, critical thinking, and developmental reading classes. She is currently investigating innovative ways of developing systems of professional development for literacy providers.

While there's no absolutely "right" way to do program-wide professional development planning (every program is different - different personalities, different resources, different needs) there are some general guidelines available (actually, elaborations of the points presented in the outline above) with lots of suggestions. These guidelines were developed collaboratively with participants of the Adult Education Administrators' Professional Development Planning Institute in 1997. To see these guidelines, go to the TCALL Web site at: and click on "Administrators Resources" on the left hand banner.