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School Professional Development Analysis

David Grayson

College of Education, Grand Canyon University

EAD-523: Developing Professional Capacity

Dr. Reid Amones

April 17, 2024

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Analysis and Evaluation of a Professional Development Program

Increasing Staff Capacity

I had the opportunity to review my school’s professional development plan for this

school year. It was laid out in a spreadsheet with the main subject areas as Staff Culture and

Leadership, Student Support Services, Curriculum Instruction and Assessment, and Student

Culture. These categories had a list of all of the days we receive professional development

throughout the year. Within the spreadsheet are mostly bullet points and brief notes about what

the plan is for that day and session. Each plan and part of the professional development is

categorized based on how it fits.

One of the first professional development sessions for staff was regarding the school’s

new policies. This fits right with the Mission of Waukegan High School which states there

should be a student-centered environment that is safe with high expectations (Waukegan Public

Schools, 2023). This session was all about new safety procedures, what is expected of teachers in

the classroom with their instruction, and not letting past narratives and stereotypes change the

fact that staff must have high expectations for students.

There were multiple days focused on the School Improvement Plan. This is in year two of

a five-year plan. The main professional development sessions that connected to this were

sessions on Freshman on Track and Sophomore on Track data, attendance data, and reading data.

The SIP specifically has data points that need to be reached in each of these categories for this

year to be considered successful and for the school to have reached its goals, which the school

calls Wildly Impotent Goals, the WIG. Focusing on this data shows that the professional

development plan is data-driven. We were given the starting data for FOT which had the
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freshman at 51%. The plan goes over strategies to improve this through Tiered Interventions and

MTSS. These sessions were followed up on later in the year. Waukegan High School is very

diverse with an 80% Hispanic population and a 15% black population. Data has shown that FOT

data tracking increased both Hispanic and black students by over 10% (Indianapolis Public

Schools, 2022). This also aligns with the Mission of Waukegan High School which states that

the school will focus on honoring diversity and having high expectations for all individual

students (Waukegan Public Schools, 2023).

In the professional development plan, there is a session on teacher mental health. The

Mission of Waukegan High School is to empower all and have them reach their social potential

(Waukegan Public Schools, 2023). By not only recognizing but also helping staff cope with

mental health, they are showing care about the culture of the school and the well-being of the

staff. The culture shift of the school, both with students and staff is specifically listed in the

School Improvement Plan for each of the five years.

One of the other major sessions that was reoccurring throughout the full school year was

Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 Interventions and MTSS training and understanding. Instructional

Focused professional development is key because it helps teacher’s pedagogy and student

learning outcomes (Hunzicker, 2010). These professional development plans were focused on

teachers using data and student-centered individual instruction to recognize, categorize, and help

students throughout their learning. The staff learned new strategies to help students through

different instructional methods and how to understand the data that helps them recognize those

students. A student-centered mindset views the student as an individual and finds ways to engage

and connect with them (Stanford University, n.d.). The professional development plan has

different instructional strategies listed to teach staff in order to help students who are falling
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behind, don’t understand the material, or need a different way of having the material explained to

them.

There were also some state-mandated professional development plans such as testing

preparation for the PSAT. This was focused on the specifics of what the staff needed in the

professional development time right before testing took place for the students. The testing

coordinator had videos that he created for the staff to watch that went over each step,

requirement, testing environment need, and troubleshooting. The district had two mandated

professional development plans for the building’s staff through two full-day institute days. These

sessions were focused on individual choice sessions presented by the staff of Waukegan High

School. I will explain more about this below.

There were also opportunities for department chairs to teach staff during this professional

development plan. These were done at least once per quarter of the school year. One example is

the department chairs teaching the staff about analyzing the data presented. They presented data

regarding student behavior examples and how staff should address those. They also wanted staff

to work through the instruction, curriculum, environment, and learner steps that were outlined in

the problem-solving worksheet. This was attached to the plan. They wanted staff to engage in

problem-solving for an identified problem with data that needs solving. This is another example

of how this professional development session is data-driven.

The last major area for professional development was giving time for curriculum

planning with curriculum maps and pacing guides. There was also time given for state and

district-mandated trainings. All requirements of the district and state have mandates by the union

to give staff time during school hours not during their preparation time to complete them. Some
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of this time was given during professional development sessions. The district is looking to

revamp the way they have all curriculums for all classes formatted and is having the staff with

the department chair oversite complete these for each of the classes they teach.

Principal’s Roles and Actions

The principal’s role for all professional development falls on the Assistant Principal of

Curriculum and Instruction. One example of how the Assistant Principal develops the classroom

environment and the teacher’s instructional abilities is through professional development and

walkthroughs of leadership meetings, curriculum teams, and instructional coaches. He uses the

other leadership in the building to teach the staff. This allows him to be more effective in

reaching all staff in the building. He conducts professional development for the other building

leaders so they can then share this information during team meetings and other professional

development sessions that they lead. These walkthroughs collect data that is then shared about

the environment of the classroom and how well the teachers are communicating with each other

and coming up with instructional plans for the students.

Teachers’ Roles

One of the big ways that the teachers have a role in the development of the professional

development program is through choice sessions. All teachers twice during the school year had

an opportunity to sign up and make a presentation proposal to teach an hour-long session on the

topic they feel passionate about, believe our staff need, and believe will help better the students

through staff education. These professional development sessions have a lot of collaboration.

This is important in professional development because it emphasizes both active and interactive

learning experiences for the staff. It also helps create learning communities. There were
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examples of sessions engaging teachers physically through yoga, cognitively, and emotionally.

Many had activities such as problem-solving, sharing and discussion, simulations and role-play,

and reflection. These sessions capitalized on the teacher’s prior knowledge and experiences

(Hunzicker, 2010).

Continuous Improvement Plan Alignment

There were two major examples of how the professional development program aligned

with the school’s Continuous Improvement Plan or in this case the School Improvement Plan.

The first was through tiered interventions and MTSS. The SIP specifically has data goals to

increase student achievement by specific percentage levels. In order to do that, staff need to

reach the students who are not improving or understanding the material being taught. The staff

were given training on ways to identify and help those students through using the resources

provided by the school. The staff also learned about how their own tiered interventions in the

classroom can help many of the students. By reaching those students, the school comes closer to

reaching its’ SIP goals.

The other professional development sessions focused on the SIP were multiple sessions

and parts of sessions regarding the Freshman on Track and Sophomore on Track data, attendance

data, and reading data. These categories are ones in the SIP also with percentage goals. The

professional development used data constantly and shared these numbers with the staff. The

professional development plan had these percentages and data entered into the working

document that was updated by the administration throughout the year. This helped give them

data points to share during these sessions.

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Research-based Instructional/Best Practices

This was something that was linked in the plan but not shared with staff. There were links

to books regarding ways to collect data for instructional meetings. Through sitting in on

meetings during my internships, I was able to observe these research-based instructional and

best-practices being used. For example, during a combined campus meeting with the building

leadership teams, they went over data collection and the best ways to organize this data. They

were using a research-based book on what data to collect and how it should be coded. They were

doing walkthroughs of meetings and classrooms and sharing this data with the staff they

observed. There were some links to research websites that talked about professional development

plans and sessions that create positive outcomes for staff. Not every professional development

data had research or best practices linked to it.

Evaluating PD Program

It was not apparent how research-based and best practices are used for evaluating the

professional development program. There were not any evaluations linked in the plan. Through

my experience at the school, the only evaluations came from the two district-level institute days

with choice sessions. There was a long open-ended questionnaire regarding what the staff

member learned during the session and how they will use that in the classroom. There were

questions regarding what parts of the sessions they learned will help with student-centered

learning, which also connects to the Mission of Waukegan High School. I would assume that

these forms would be shared with those presenting and used by the administration to evaluate if

choice sessions are a productive professional development plan for future years. The only other

evaluations came from exit slips after testing preparation videos that the staff were required to
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watch and after sessions regarding tired interventions and other instructional practices. These

exit slips for testing asked basic questions regarding the content of the video, asked if the staff

had any questions, and asked if they would like a follow-up answer from the testing coordinator.

The exit slips for the instructional practices asked the level at which the content was understood

by the staff member, if they had any follow-up questions, and if they would like a mentor teacher

or instructional coach to reach out to them.

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References

Hunzicker, J. (2010). Characteristics of effective professional development: A checklist. U.S.

Department of Education. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED510366.pdf

Indianapolis Public Schools. (2022). Data shows that freshman on track program is working.

https://myips.org/blog/district/data-shows-that-freshman-on-track-program-is-working/

Stanford University. (n.d.). Teacher-centered vs. student-centered course design. Stanford

Teaching Commons. https://teachingcommons.stanford.edu/teaching-guides/foundations-

course-design/theory-practice/teacher-centered-vs-student-centered

Waukegan Public Schools. (2023). Mission and vision. Waukegan High School.

https://whs.wps60.org/about_whs/mission_and_vision