Appendix A -
Federal Professional Development Requirements
The reauthorization of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also known as the No Child Left
Behind Act (NCLB), was signed into law on January 8, 2002, with a six-year
authorization.
The ESEA reauthorization focuses
on four areas: accountability for results, flexibility/local control, highly
qualified teachers, and funding for what works. Each of these provisions has
implications for professional development. Accountability for results requires
that every student’s progress and achievement be measured every year in
reading/language arts, mathematics now, and science starting in the 2005–06
school year. The law allows for more decision making about how funds are spent
at the local level. The funding for what works requires that funds be spent on
systems of teaching and learning proven effective through scientifically based
research.
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Scientifically based
research and practice are employed
systems of teaching and learning that are researched and proven to be
successful or effective. The NCLB (ESEA PL 107-110) [Section 9101(37)]
defined “scientifically based research” for reading, which may
also be applied to other disciplines. This definition follows:
The term scientifically
based reading research means research that
(A) applies rigorous, systematic, and
objective procedures to obtain valid knowledge relevant to reading
development, reading
instruction, and reading difficulties; and
(B) includes research that
(i) employs
systematic, empirical methods that draw on observation or experiment;
(ii) involves
rigorous data analyses that are adequate to test the stated hypotheses
and justify the general conclusions drawn;
(iii) relies on
measurements or observational methods that provide valid data across
evaluators and observers and across
multiple measurements and
observations; and
(iv) has been
accepted by a peer-review journal or approved by a panel of independent
experts through a comparatively
rigorous, objective, and scientific
review.
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Other teacher quality provisions
require professional development to be “high quality, sustained, intensive and
classroom focused in order to have a positive and lasting impact on classroom
instruction and the teacher’s performance in the classroom.” The professional
development program must be aligned with State Academic Standards, based on
effective practices and results, and schools must describe how they will
evaluate the programs quality. These elements must be included in a Professional
Development Plan submitted as a part of the Final LEA Consolidated Plan.
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Federal Professional Development Plan
Requirements
The NCLB Final LEA Consolidated Plan must
include a Professional Development Plan based on a needs assessment and
must include the descriptions of the professional development activities
to be carried out by the LEA as listed below. A comprehensive approach
to the development of the plan should be taken in order to ensure that
all teachers are highly qualified and able to assist all students to
meet the Tennessee Academic Standards.
Professional Development
- Defined in NCLB
[Section 9101(34)] as: 1. Includes activities that: a.) Improve and
increase teachers’ knowledge of the academic subjects the teachers
teach, and enable teachers to become highly qualified; b.) Are an
integral part of broad school wide and district wide educational
improvement plans; c.) Give teachers, principals and administrators the
knowledge and skills to provide students with the opportunity to meet
challenging State academic content standards and student academic
achievement standards; d.) Improve classroom management skills; e.) Are
high quality, sustained, intensive and are not 1-day or short-term
workshops or conferences; f.) Support the recruiting, hiring, and
training of highly qualified teachers, including teachers who became
highly qualified through State and local alternative routes to
certification; g.) Advance teacher understanding of effective
instructional strategies that are; i.) Based on scientifically based
research (expect that this sub clause shall not apply to activities
carried out under Part D of Title II); and ii.) Strategies for improving
student academic achievement or substantially increasing the knowledge
and teaching skills of teachers; and h.) Are aligned with and directly
related to: i.) State academic content standards, student academic
achievement standards, and assessments; and ii. The curricula and
programs tied to the standards described in sub clause (a) [except that
this sub clause shall not apply to activities described in clauses (ii)
and (iii) of Section 2123(3) (B)]; i.) Are developed with extensive
participation of teachers, principals, parents and administrators of
schools to be served under this Act; j.) Are designed to give teachers
of limited English proficient children, and other teachers and
instructional staff, the knowledge and skills to provide instruction and
appropriate language and academic support services to those children,
including the appropriate use of curricula and assessments; k.) To the
extent appropriate, provide training for teachers and principals in the
use of technology so that technology and technology applications are
effectively used in the classroom to improve teaching and learning in
the curricula and core academic subjects in which the teachers teach;
l.) As a whole, are regularly evaluated for their impact on increased
teacher effectiveness and improved student academic achievement, with
the findings of the evaluations used to improve the quality of
professional development; m.) Provide instruction in methods of teaching
children with special needs; n.) Include instruction in the use of data
and assessments to inform and instruct classroom practice; and o.)
Include instruction in ways that teachers, principals, pupil services
personnel, and school administrators may work more effectively with
parents; and 2. May include activities that; a.) Involve the forming of
partnerships with institutions of higher education to establish
school-based teacher training programs that provide prospective teachers
and beginning teachers with an opportunity to work under the guidance of
experienced teachers and college faculty; b.) Create programs to enable
paraprofessionals (assisting teachers employed by a local educational
agency receiving assistance under Part A of Title I) to obtain the
education necessary for those paraprofessionals to become certified and
licensed teachers; and c.) Provide follow-up training to teachers how
have participated in activities described in subparagraph (A_ or another
clause of this subparagraph that is designed to ensure that the
knowledge and skills learned by the teachers are implemented in the
classroom [Title IX, Part A Section 9101(34)].
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