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Adult Education Administrator's Manual

Professional Development

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Section 223 funds are allocated to fiscal agents to implement local professional development activities. Professional development activities must relate directly to program goals and local program objectives. In addition, they must satisfy grant requirements, including collaborative planning, holistic instruction, and research-based methods, as stated in the Indicators of Program Quality for Adult Education and Literacy Programs and the Adult Education Instructor Proficiencies in the appendices.

Professional Development Needs Assessment

Programs should conduct an assessment of the professional development needs of their instructional personnel at least once yearly. This assessment is important in determining the type of professional development activities and content that the program should offer its personnel either through local offerings or in collaboration with the GREAT Center in their region.

Professional Development Plans

Programs should develop a local professional development plan as part of their program design. This plan should be based on the results of the professional development needs assessment and should indicate how the local program plans to meet the programmatic and individual professional development needs. Programs are encouraged to work with their instructors in setting short and long term professional development plans that should be congruent with the plans of the program.

Pre-Service Training

In accordance with Texas Administrative Code 89.25(2), fiscal agents are responsible for providing 6 hours of pre-service training to new instructional staff. This training is required prior to the first day of employment in adult education. Any training after the pre-service has been completed will be considered In-service training. Pre-service training for instructional staff includes training in the program’s instructional approach, using the program’s instructional materials, conducting and using learner assessments, making referrals to community resources and fulfilling other program responsibilities as given in their job description. Completion of pre-service hours does not count toward the number of mandatory in-service hours. Programs must make sure to indicate whether any specific professional development activity entered in TEAMS meets pre-service or in-service requirements.

Orientation

The local program may provide an orientation to instructional staff as part of the mandatory pre-service hours. The orientation will allow the new staff/volunteers to learn about the program’s purpose, approaches, opportunities and expectations.

In-Service Training

Fiscal agents are responsible for ensuring that all their personnel comply with the required number of in-service training clock hours (12 or 24 as specified in Texas Administrative Code 89.25); in order to do that, local programs must provide in-service training that continually improves effectiveness of instructors and support staff in working with the program’s adult learners.

On-going education is important for maintaining skills and morale, for exchanging ideas and resources among instructors, for solving problems and for learning new skills. If a local program is unable (small program or limited resources) to provide the training themselves, it is incumbent upon the administrator of the program to engage the services of the GREAT center in their region to provide the needed professional development opportunities to all staff.

Suitable topics for in-service training may include, but not be limited to:

• working with adult learners
• how adults learn
• issues facing the adult learner population
• community resources
• assessment skills
• instructional approaches
• the design of instructional materials
• targeted population training (i.e. correctional, learning disabilities, TANF, etc.)

Some of the activities in which staff members will remain current with developments in adult literacy education and technology fields include:

• coaching and mentoring
• completion of college courses applicable to adult education
• formalized networking meetings
• seminars and workshops
• visits to other campuses
• participating in distance learning opportunities
• materials development
• Internet based research
• reading relevant books
• study or book reading groups
• attending conferences
• action research projects
• classroom based cohort activities
• journals and periodicals

Professional Development Data

The local program is responsible for maintaining staff development records including

• Verification of educational credentials for each staff
• Professional development requirements for each staff
• Number of hours of staff development accrued by each staff
• Staff Development Activities, including activity descriptions, dates, scheduled hours and sign-in & sign-out sheets
• Evaluation of each activity reported by individual staff

The local program is also responsible for entering data regarding professional development activities into TEAMS. For the purposes of reporting, all professional development activities must occur between July 1 (beginning of the federal fiscal year) and June 30 the following year (end of the federal fiscal year.) Contact hours for activities in excess of the required number of hours cannot be “rolled over” to the following fiscal year. Exceeding the required number of hours on a given fiscal year does not reduce the number of training hours required the following year.

Staff not completing their mandatory professional development are not eligible to be rehired to work during the year immediately following the program year when they failed to meet the mandated hours.

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