The Educator's Professional Growth Plan: A Process for Developing Staff and Improving Instruction

"Outlines a systematic method that helps professional educators focus their energies on lasting professional growth. Strategies and templates assist teachers in reflecting on their own professional performance, setting their own learning targets, and managing their own progress toward greater professional success." —Scott Estes, Principal Glendale School, East Peoria, IL "Offers the school leader a well-organized and effective plan. Reveals that true professional growth occurs through systematic reflection and analysis of one's strengths and weaknesses." —Bonnie Watson, Writing Lab Coordinator Owensboro 5-6 Center, KY Empower teachers with growth opportunities that build rich professional collaborations and raise student achievement! Recognizing that student achievement is intrinsically linked to high-quality teaching, Jodi Peine offers an invaluable guide that helps educational leaders strengthen teachers' instructional practice with an individualized and robust professional development process. The author provides administrators and staff developers with step-by-step guidance for designing, implementing, and sustaining a professional growth plan. Grounded in research at elementary, middle, and high school levels, the process is delivered in manageable sections with reproducible forms for every step. With a refined method that includes formal data analysis, this guidebook: Demonstrates how participants can develop their own goals and action plans Provides current terminology and topics for individual growth plan development Examines steps to take after completing first-generation professional growth plans Helps redefine school improvement efforts to produce enduring systemic change The Educator's Professional Growth Plan, Second Edition, provides a targeted approach that accommodates the unique needs of individual teachers. Within a supportive context, educators can assume responsibility for their own learning, witness changes in their professional practice, and realize substantive gains in student performance.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Professional Growth: Defining the What, Why, Who, and How What Is Professional Growth? What Is a Professional Growth Plan? What Is the Professional Growth Plan Process? Why Use the Professional Growth Plan Process? Who Can Use a Growth Plan? Who Can Lead the Professional Growth Plan Process? How to Implement the Professional Growth Plan Process Successfully Encouraging New Traditions in Professional Growth 2. Managing the Professional Growth Plan Process Operational Issues Allocating Resources Available Resources vs. Needs? - A Balancing Act Who Has the Time? Organizing People, Events, and Information Forms? - How Can They Help? Introducing the Process to Staff The School Leader as Coach and Advisor 3. Identifying Areas for Professional Growth The First of Four Phases Targeting Professional Growth Conducting a Personal Needs Assessment Comparing Current Practices to Established Professional Performance Standards/Best Practice Research Review and Understand Professional Performance Standards and Best Practices Research The Self-Assessment Activity Examining Relevant Student Performance Data Facilitating Data Analysis Linking Practice and Performance Addressing Deficiencies and Discrepancies Needs - Assessment and the School Leader The Needs - Assessment Conference The Needs Assessment Conference Record 4. Designing the Professional Growth Plan The Second Phase: Plan Design Guiding the Design Process Establishing Professional Goals Establishing Learner-Centered Goals Can Goals Change? Establishing the Questions Creating the Essential Question Creating Related Questions Designing an Action Plan Identifying Modes of Documentation Documentation: A Product and a Process Identifying Baseline Data Defining Methods of Evaluation Identifying Resource Needs Choosing a Method for Sharing Results With the Learning Community Finalizing the Growth Plan 5. Professional Growth Plans in Progress Implementation and Monitoring Monitoring the Process Formal Monitoring: Progress Meetings Informal Monitoring: Listening, Watching, Visiting Deciding What Is Not Working and Why Interim Sharing: What Has Happened so Far? Troubleshooting? What Happens If. . . . Preparing for the Final Phase 6. Completing the Growth Plan Process Plan Evaluation Growth Plan Summary Activities Summarizing the Growth Plan Experience? What Happened? The Growth Plan Summary Conference Evaluating Documentation of Professional Growth Sharing With the Learning Community Wrapping Up the Professional Growth Plan Process 7. The Process Continues Second Generation Plans and Beyond Impediments to the Process Changes in Personnel Inconsistent Implementation Lack of Administrative Support The Demands of Compliance Directives and Documentation The Professional Growth Plan Process Is School Improvement The School Leader as Mechanic and Change Agent Appendix A: School Leader Blacklines Appendix B: Participant Blacklines References Index