Sample District Career Development Plan

Constant Conversation Question #1

What do data tell us about our current student learning needs?

Collecting/Analyzing Data:

The District Career Development Plan is based on student data and other needs assessment. (LRDA1, TQ2)

Write a brief statement describing what you learned about your students that helped you to make decisions about what to do to support student learning in this cycle of ongoing school improvement. The web-based CSIP did not allow for tables and charts. This document should include any data displays that will help to show student needs. The analysis should include the general population as well as findings and implications for all subgroups represented in the district (LRDA 2, 4).

The narrative should include a summary of your Professional Development Leadership Team’s interpretation and comments on the implications of these data. Tools: The next page includes questions to help you organize this analysis. Also provided is a discussion guide to help facilitate dialogue regarding the data. An important step in implementing the DCDP is to make sure that all faculty members are knowledgeable about student needs and the rationale for studying new practices.

Sample District-Level Questions

Knowing what questions to ask is the first step. Knowing where to find the answers is the next. Different questions require that the data be examined in different ways. The following discussion examines each of our sample questions and suggests one method to examine the data to answer the question. Often there are multiple ways that the data can be examined to answer each question.

1. How does our student performance in reading and math compare with state and national achievement norms?

ITBS and ITED both have national and state achievement norms. Other assessments, PLAN, EXPLORE, and ACT for example, have national norms. Examine the state and national percentile ranks. On ITBS and ITED be careful because the school data is given two ways: rank on student norms and rank on school norms.

2. Are our mean percentile math and reading achievement scores consistent at the elementary, middle school and high school levels?

Again the ITBS and ITED percentile ranks will give you this information. CAUTION: it is not good statistical practice to find the mean of percentile ranks because they are not equal interval data. You must average the standard scores and then use a conversion table to find the appropriate percentile rank. EXCEL calculates mean, mode, standard deviation, and range quickly using the “descriptive statistics” function.

3. How does the achievement of our various subgroups (e.g., Special Education, English Language Learners, Low Socioeconomic Status, ethnic minorities, etc.) compare with our district averages in reading and math? Are we serving all students equally?

Most assessments for which students receive scores can be disaggregated. Excel’s “Pivot Table” tool can accomplish this easily.

4. How many schools do we have “in need of assistance” or in danger of being labeled “in need of assistance?”

All school must test at least 95% of their students enrolled on the beginning day of ITBS/ITED testing.

The percent of students who have attended for a full academic year (FAY) and score proficient on ITBS/ITED in Reading Comprehension and Math Total must be above the state Annual Measurable Objective (AMO). A 98% one sided confidence interval and safe harbor may also be taken into account.

5. How often are students with low scores reading and math absent?

Again ITBS/ITED scores or another measure such as a criterion referenced test (CRT) may be used. The Excel Data Analysis Tool called “correlation” will calculate the correlations.

6. How often do poor readers (or students struggling with math) get referred in a given year? Are poor readers referred to the office for discipline problems more often than good readers?

See #5.

7. How many of our students are proficient in reading? Math?

First you must determine what is meant by proficient. For the NCLB legislation proficient is defined as scoring above the 40th percentile on the ITBS or ITED using the 2000 norms on the Reading Comprehension and Mathematics Total scores.

Excel “IF” statements can help answer this question.

8. How many of our students are “marginally” proficient (e.g., scoring between the 41st and 50th percentile in reading and math on the ITBS/ITED?)

See #7. An EXCEL scatter plot can also help to visualize just where your students are scoring.

Discussing Our District’s Data – Response Sheet

This worksheet provides a structured way to facilitate a discussion about data. The PD Leadership Team should discuss the data and record the team’s responses to the questions regarding the data. As soon as the data is organized and ready to share, the leadership team and principal should share the data and facilitate a discussion with the full faculty. This information will support goal setting and other decision making about professional development.

District Name: Data Analyzed By:

Data Collection Period: Date of Analysis:

Type of Data Analyzed: (Check the data source you are analyzing.)

Student Performance Data
___	ITBS/ITED
___	Diagnostic:	______________________
___	Grades or Progress Indicators
___	Other:	__________________________

1. What do you notice when you look at these data? What are you comfortable saying about student or staff performance based on these results?

2. What additional questions do these data generate?

3. What do these data indicate students need to work on?

Based on these data, what can we infer teachers/administrators need to work on?

4. What do the results and their implications mean for your instructional practices and building-level professional development plan?

Constant Conversation Question #2

What do we do to meet student learning needs?

Goal Setting:

Professional development is aligned with district goals. (TQ1)

List student learning goals:

List measurable annual objectives or annual improvement goals in the area of instruction (This won’t be found in the CSIP but is important for designing quality PD.)

Professional development is focused on instruction, curriculum, and assessment. (TQ3/4)

List the district professional development target (See attached definition of PD target):

(A PD target is narrower than the broad annual improvement goal/ annual measurable objective. For example, a goal might be to improve reading by x percentile. Data analysis indicate that inference is a difficult skill for most students and may be contributing to low scores in reading comprehension. Therefore, a professional development target would be to increase reading comprehension by improving student’s skills in making inferences.)

If buildings have different targets, also include the building targets.

Selecting Content:

Professional development learning opportunities are research-based. (PD5)

Describe the content to be studied. (See DCDP)

The PD Leadership Team should read the studies and select one or two studies that support the practices you will be studying in professional development. Attach the research studies that support this content.

The team will lead the faculty in reading and discussing the strongest articles.

Discussion Questions

1. What was the research question? Were the authors trying to solve the same problem we are?

2. What were the results of the study? Were they reported in Effect Sizes? If not, how were they reported? Did the treatment benefit the sample studied? In your opinion, were the benefits substantial? Why?

3. Compare and contrast the sample studied with your own student population. Has this treatment benefited other students in previous studies?

4. Is this treatment practical for your faculty? Do you have access to trainers? Do you have sufficient time in your PD schedule to learn this treatment?

5. Does the study describe the moves of the teacher? If yes, what are they?

Professional development learning opportunities are aligned with Iowa Teaching Standards and criteria. (TQ5)

Identify the Teaching Standards and criteria that are addressed by the PD you have designed. You do not need to list all the standards and criteria here. (Remember that as you are working on PD, the implementation data, formative assessments, collaborative logs, etc., provide artifacts and documentation for teachers to use as part of their individual plan and their performance reviews.)

Designing the Process:

The plan must include all K-12 teachers responsible for instruction. (TQ8)

Identify the target audience for professional development:

Also describe how administrators will be involved.

The District Career Development Plan includes theory, demonstration, practice, observation, reflection, collaboration, technology integration, and the study of implementation. (TQ7)

Training and Learning Opportunities:

Describe how training will be distributed through the year.

(For ideas for finding time go to IPDM Training Manual Part 4 pages 101- 104)

How often will you have training opportunities?

How long will they last?

How will you communicate with trainers to ensure that the theory and demonstrations meet the needs of the teachers and that practice opportunities are provided during training sessions?

Who will provide your training?

Describe how you will provide theory.

Describe how demonstrations will be included.

Describe how teachers will be given opportunities to practice.

Describe how collaborative teams will be organized.

Describe your communication plan for sharing this design with your staff.

Insert your PD calendar for your district.

List group training distributed through the year.

List times for collaborative team meetings (also called peer coaching meetings).

Plan for weekly or at a minimum bi-weekly for at least 45 minutes per meeting.

Implementation: (TQ10)

Describe what your PD content will look like when it is in place. What will be the pattern of use? What will be the quality of use? How will it differ from current practice? Will it be integrated with current practice or will it replace current practice?

How often will the teachers use this strategy/skill in the classroom? For buildings with multiple role groups, list for each role group.

Describe how you will monitor your implementation. Include how you will collect data on both the frequency and skill of use with your planned change.

Who will collect these data and at what intervals?

How will these data be shared and with whom?

How often will you compare implementation data with formative data on student responses to your planned change? Will this occur in collaborative teams, school-wide, and/or district-wide?

Collaboration:

Each school will develop a plan for teacher collaboration that enables teachers to work cooperatively on learning new PD content and implementing it in classrooms.

Please describe your school’s structures for collaboration (e.g., how often will teachers meet and for how long?)

How will the teams be formed?

Who will provide the structure for the use of collaboration time?

Who will set collaborative meeting agendas? What will a typical agenda include?

Describe how the building collaborative teams will communicate with the building PD Leadership Teams and the district-level PD leadership team?

Constant Conversation Question #3

How will we assess student learning?

Formative Evaluation:

The DCDP contains a description of formative evaluation processes for professional development. (TQ 11)

Formative evaluation is periodic measurement of progress toward your PD target. For example, if your PD target is the improvement of reading comprehension, your formative measure will periodically examine students’ reading comprehension.

What instrument [measure(s)] will you use for your formative evaluation? (See research studies for ideas on how to measure student progress and how to determine frequency of data collection.)

How often will this measure be administered?

Will it be administered to all students or a sample of students at each data collection point?

How will results be shared with faculty?

See The Iowa Professional Development Training Manual, Part 4 page 15 for questions to ask of Implementation and Student Growth Data.

Constant Conversation Question #4

How do we evaluate our programs and services to ensure improved student learning?

Summative Evaluation:

The DCDP contains a description of a program evaluation design for summative evaluation processes for professional development.(TQ12)

Summative evaluation is primarily the task of the district; each district must report its ITBS/ITED data to the state each year and these data are used to judge the efficacy of the district’s educational programs. However, it is useful at the school level to also examine ITBS/ITED results, especially for cohorts of students, as these data confirm results of earlier formative measures and provide additional information to schools about the success of their instructional programs.

Use data to answer questions:

Does this intervention work? Have we accomplished our goals for student learning?

Should we continue this initiative as is, or with changes?

Is the initiative complete?

The PD Leadership Team needs to decide how to organize and display the data and findings to support future planning.

The DCDP includes the identification of the approved professional development provider(s). (TQ6)

List your provider:

For additional information contact:

Deb Hansen

Professional Development Consultant for Teacher Quality

Iowa Department of Education

Grimes State Office Building

Des Moines, Iowa 50319-0146

Phone: 515-281-6131