Professional Development Sub-Committee Report / Recommendation

Bill Burrall – Lori Dillard – Joe Robertson – Lydotta Taylor

August 30, 2005

Goals (restated from Stonewall Jackson meeting):

1. to identify and prioritize staff development needs of educators
   
2. to address the need of staffing schools with Technology Information Specialists (TIS)s who provide daily and timely support of educators using technology in the classroom
   
3. to identify what staff development programs are currently available and which programs address relevancy to best practices in technology integration
   
4. to identify solutions to better prepare educators with the integration of technology into the curriculum (i.e. allocation of time, providing substitutes, monitoring and accountability)
   
5. to identify minimum technology integration staff development requirements needed for higher education teacher programs as well as substitutes working in our schools
   
6. to identify a cadre of technology savvy educators in each RESA who can become the catalysts of true, meaningful and relevant technology integration

Short and Long Term Goals at the end of this report….

Findings:

Goal 1:  to identify and prioritize technology professional development needs of educators  

Based on feedback from county technology coordinators who responded via e-mail by phone conversation and data collected by digital divide surveys there was a trend that surfaced in technology professional development needs viewed by contacts at the county levels who have the best take on what is best for their teachers and students.  Needs identified were:

• offer meaningful and ongoing professional development (PD) pertinent to curriculum offerings.
• provide time and incentives for teachers to attend PD sessions
• salary supplements and/or pay incentives for educators who display best practices along with mastery for integrating and utilizing technology in the classroom.
• assist teachers with facility-based technology integration support personnel

Goal 2:  to address the need of staffing schools with Technology Information Specialists (TIS)s who provide daily and timely support of educators using technology in the classroom

• the most requested need by teachers and schools and a top priority
• a short term goal of at least providing a Technology Integration Specialist (TIS) in large enrollment schools or a fixed number per county with a long term goal of providing a TIS at each school
• to fund the TIS position through the state aid formula as not to further stretch the dollars needed for hardware, software and infrastructure

Goal 3:  to identify what staff development programs are currently available and which programs address relevancy to best practices in technology integration

• provide solutions to better prepare educators with the integration of technology into the curriculum (i.e. allocation of time, providing substitutes, monitoring and accountability
• avoid duplication of effort between RESA PD offerings and state contract offerings
• identify tried and true vendors who deliver quality PD that meets the needs of educators
• develop a cadre of educators who employ best practices that enhance teaching and learning and utilize this group of individuals as mentors to facilitate PD development across the state
• utilize county committees to identify and select relevant PD offered though state contracts and weed out the PD that is not productive

Goal 4:  to identify solutions to better prepare educators with the integration of technology into the curriculum (i.e. allocation of time, providing substitutes, monitoring and accountability)

• allocation of time – provide incentives and compensation for after school, weekend PD sessions, provide substitutes (who will have PD training in technology integration). 
• monitoring -- school administration, county tech coordinators, and school tech team/committees need to be trained in how to determine if meaningful technology integration is occurring at the classroom level Rubric development needed to assess and evaluate TIS work and teacher integration
• accountability -- mandated reporting by school administration to district level of staff technology integration (CSOs cited in teacher lesson plans)  Assess by teacher surveys their comfort levels integrating technologies into their classrooms along with ongoing needs in PD
• other...identify different teacher skill levels and create support groups within schools and counties to assist these teachers.  Support groups could be shared among schools.   Examples may be:  those who have mastered Word, PowerPoint,  those who are adept in classroom management of 25 students / 3 computers, those who have developed successful lessons based on WV content standards, etc. 

Goal 5:  to identify minimum technology integration staff development requirements needed for higher education teacher programs as well as substitutes working in our schools

• change the certificate renewal system for teachers and require that graduate hours be technology based.    Develop mandates for more on-line courses that include content for substitute teachers that are technology based.  Create re-certification requirements for administrators, teachers, and subs that include technology integration content.

Goal 6:  to identify a cadre of technology savvy educators in each RESA who can become the catalysts of true, meaningful and relevant technology integration

• develop a list and compensate mentor/educators who disseminate to counties proven practices of technology integration in the classroom
• list of mentor/educators can be region-based and develop a standardized approach to training teachers – practitioners who have documented successes in technology integration methods
• centralize the PD offerings and avoid duplication of offerings from several sources

Short Term Goals (Immediate Priority and Paramount to Meaningful Technology Integration and student learning)

1. Implement Technology Integration Specialists in large enrollment schools or a set number to be allocated to counties based on student population
2. Fund the TIS through the school aid formula
3. Address the need of providing sufficient and ongoing time for teachers to attend PD sessions
4. Address the need of compensating teachers attending PD sessions
5. Address the problem of providing adequate numbers of subs to free up teachers who have the desire to implement true technology integration

Long Term Goals (not prioritized)

1. Offer pay incentives for educators who master technology integration
2. Continue to add TIS support in all schools if not met as a short term goal

As part of an exit strategy for the TIS effort, documentation is accumulated with attention to a TIS’s approach to facilitate teachers’ successful  technology integration in the classroom.  After an established period of time (i.e. 5 years as part of the school’s 5-year strategic plan) it will be expected that every teacher become a TIS so that technology integration occurs seamlessly across the curriculum.  Develop a system of monitoring effect technology integration and replicate what works well across the state

1. Standardize PD offerings and delivery of content with flexibility allowed as per school and county specific needs requests to ensure collaboration and consistency across the state
   
2. Create and maintain centralized repositories of proven PD that results in a proliferation of best technology integration practices that enhance teaching and learning
   
3. Create and maintain a centralized repository of teacher developed content that addresses the WV CSOs in all areas of technology integration.  ( A good model is www.thesolutionsite.com ) This excellent model can be replicated and taken to new levels providing teachers with access to classroom resources in the way of electronic field trips, video streaming, real-time collaboration, mentoring from expert educators, etc.

Risks and barriers to reaching the goals

• Funding mechanism to support permanent TIS at the building level
• Allocation of adequate time to provide and attend professional development
• Incentives and supplements funding source to compensate teachers for PD sessions
• County flexibility in using state dollar allocations to select what vendor and PD content best suits the county’s needs
• Development of a standardized monitoring mechanism to track and support meaningful integration of technology
• Enforcing mandated reporting by school administration to determine and verify level of effective staff technology integration that indicates that CSOs are implemented in teacher lesson plans
• Development and support of teacher support groups who lead by example with proven practices
• Changing the certificate renewal system for teachers to require that graduate hours be technology based with focus on integration
• Change and mandate re-certification requirements for administrators with focus on utilization of technology for productivity
• Standardize PD offerings  

What programs currently exist that could be a resource for meeting the objectives

• Selected offerings from Basic Skills contract
• Selected offerings from SUCCESS contract
• EdVenture Group PD offerings
• In-house county developed PD
• Vendor driven online courses
• Web resources

Models of success that are already in place (Please identify)

• Implementation of TIS at school level – top comments
• Compass learning PD through Basic Skills
• Train-the-trainer in-house approaches
• SAS in Schools – in-house training
• Marco Polo
• United Streaming (Discovery Education)
• Grad classes / community college offerings
• RiverDeep
• Bridges

Implementation of goals and how will success be measured

• Make the TIS happen by funding with change in school aid formula
• Require standardized approach to PD implementation in all counties and monitor and measure by assessing teacher productivity, lesson plans (CSO integration) and student feedback

Next steps

• Begin discussion between and among key legislative contacts, higher education, county technology coordinators, WVDE and Governor’s office as to how to overcome any barriers, identify best practices and what is quality, and properly fund PD opportunities through incentives and pay supplements
• Address the lack of substitute teachers issue as outside the school environment PD cannot occur unless subs are available 

Timelines for implementation

• Begin now to address the problems by looking at the immediate solution -----  Funding the TIS positions

Cost for implementation

• TIS – ballpark of $30K to $35K a year ..  sustainable
• Substitutes (would vary by county at $100 per day per sub)
• PD offerings as per state contract and vendor costs per session
• Note:  Dollars to support this would have to be a supplement to existing state allocations as not to hamper priority hardware and infrastructure needs

Other comments

• The need for permanent and sustainable TIS positions came through statewide, loud and clear from those we contacted.  This is truly the missing piece to the puzzle to making technology integration happen at all levels.