5.

3 Program Evaluation Candidates design and implement program evaluations to determine the

overall effectiveness of professional learning on deepening teacher content knowledge,

improving teacher pedagogical skills and/or increasing student learning.

In order to complete the Action & Evaluation Plan GAPSS Review/Current Reality

artifact, I was tasked with designing and implementing program evaluations to determine the

overall effectiveness of professional learning in deepening teacher content knowledge. To do

this, I had to evaluate our school’s current reality for teaching a diverse student population and

technology integration at my school. I was also tasked with evaluating the overall effectiveness

of a variety of programs to determine if those programs were improving teacher pedagogical

skills and/or increasing student learning. While I did work on this project individually, I was

required to evaluate my school based on a given rubric. The goal of this artifact was to evaluate

programs and technology integration at my school and determine if they were effectively

increasing student learning.

As I began evaluating the programs our school implements, I worked closely with our

school administration and media center specialist to get a better understanding of the various

technologies and programs our school implements. As I moved through creating the artifact, I

learned that for the 2020-2021 school year, WRMS implemented a Strategic Plan for

Improvement with four primary goals and an individual action plan to achieve those goals. By

using the integration of various technologies and programs, WRMS's goal is to maintain high

expectations and deliver a technological curriculum for our students' diverse population.

As a moved through the process of completing this assignment, I found myself speaking

with a lot of teachers about their experience with technology integration and the programs
WRMS uses to achieve its goal. I’ve found that starting with a clear and measurable goal works

wonders and that what frustrates teachers the most, in my opinion, wasn’t the fact they felt

forced by others to integrate technology into their lessons, but that they had no guidance on how

to start the process. This assignment tied in well with my coaching lessons and I was able to

conduct research for the evaluation while also gaining insights into the technology coaching

process as well.

Reflecting on my experiences with the Action & Evaluation Plan GAPSS

Review/Current Reality artifact, I feel very confident about my results and findings. I answered

all of the evaluation questions thoughtfully and with great detail, however, there were a few

areas of the overall evaluation plan that I could use clarification. For example, if I were to do this

again, I would explain more about the way I scored WRMS. I provided examples to make better

choices for our school but not why I chose the score I did for each area.

While there is no way to “implement” an evaluation plan, if the areas of improvement,

based on the evaluation plan, were to be implemented, there would be a significant impact on the

school itself. For example, teachers would be more likely to embrace the required technology,

students would benefit from more authentic and adaptive assessments, and administrators would

require less professional development.