6-Professional+Development+in+Rural+Schools-Districts



While many teachers like the experience of teaching in rural schools, there are as many drawbacks as there are positives. We sent a questionnaire to administrators in a rural district asking the following questions:

1)What is your perception of what constitutes effective professional development? 2)What challenges do you face in creating and/or implementing professional development? Which, if any, of these challenges are intensified by the size of your school or faculty? 3)Do you provide professional development for others on your staff besides certified teachers? 4)What are the results of your professional development efforts on your faculty/staff morale? 5)What, if any, effect do you feel your professional development has had on student achievement?

__**These are the results of said survey. (The different colors represent different respondents: Blue - District Level, Red - School Level)**__

__**1)What is your perception of what constitutes effective professional development?**__

Professional development is an on-going developmental process of personal and professional growth designed to promote professional self-renewal and effective learning for students. It requires and fosters a norm of continuous improvement and a positive attitude and commitment to activities designed to promote growth. Professional development focuses on developing the skills and processes necessary for achieving expected individual and school/district outcomes. Professional development requires strong leadership in order to obtain continuing support and to motivate all staff members to be advocates for continuous improvement. It should be aligned with the school/district strategic plan and provide for the accomplishment of the school/district mission and goals. Professional development activities should also be based on the specific needs of individual teachers as evidenced by teacher evaluation, and should also be targeted at data received on student assessment instruments.

Answers are not in a rank order (professional development = PD) 1- sustainability- one-shot-wonders are poor programs for PD. The PD needs some type of ongoing accountability or in-service in order to be effective. Do you, or a faculty member, have the expertise to help continue the training by providing training or support? 2- affordability- There are many programs that are great but the cost prevents then from being implemented at a school level. 3- applicability/usefulness- Is the information being taught something that the teachers will use and lead to improvement in instruction? How much of a burden will beadded to the teacher or administrator when this program is implemented? 4- research based- Is it fluffy crap, a trendy program? Attention to the research behind the program would help indicate the quality of the program and its value. 5- schools identified needs- a school needs analysis can help you select PD the meets the identified needs. 6- leaders vision and goals- where do you see a need? What direction do you want or need your faculty and staff to go? What tool can help you get there? Is there a staff development program that can help you meet that vision.

2) (a) What challenges do you face in creating and/or implementing professional development?

T he biggest challenges to professional development are threefold 1) Time – current schedules (student, buses, etc.) are not conducive to allowing for continuous long-term professional development activities; 2) Funding Resources – most of the funding for professional development was eliminated by the Legislature as a result of a depressed economy and decisions on where to find funding for presenters and to compensate participants require the elimination of other important services to students; 3) The lack of desire on the part of some teachers to want to consider professional collaboration and/or change in status quo.

1- Time- after school is tough because teachers are tired. Before school, teachers are mentally planning the day. During school requires subs and is expensive and difficult to do on a full faculty basis. Weekends, requires a budget where you can compensate the teachers for their time. 2- Teacher buy-in- if you consider answers #’s 1,3 & 5 of question chances of achieving teacher buy in is increased. 3- Budget- see answers #1 & 2 from question #1.

(b) Which, if any, of these challenges are intensified by the size of your school or faculty? The size of a school district impacts the amount of funding received, which limits the ability to effectively compensate for professional development, the availability and affordability of high level professional development presenters, affordable software, supplemental materials, as well as the ability to arrange schedules due to the transportation issues.

I don’t think that school size intensifies these 3 aspects of PD. A larger faculty translates to a bigger budget. The more people involved complicates the buy-in or create the shared vision. But time, support/buy-in, and budget are administrative concerns independent of class size.

3)Do you provide professional development for others on your staff besides certified teachers?

While our efforts are not as broad with other employee groups, we do look for and provide training for our support staff as well as our teachers.

Our paraprofessional receive ongoing in-service through our Title I coordinator and Resource teacher. This year our paraprofessionals were able to attend the state parapro conference. Custodians attend asbestos and safety training each August. Secretary- District offers training in the spring. I encourage my secretary to attend the secretaries training offered by UAESP in the fall. Librarian- there is a UELMA (Utah librarian association) conference held in the spring. I offer this to our school librarian.

4)What are the results of your professional development efforts on your faculty/staff morale? Most staff members appreciate the opportunity for personal and professional growth. Most of them see these opportunities as evidence that they are valued and that the District wants to see them succeed.

Over the years we have studied books and topics together. The last few we have conducted in-service on topicsof interest together.I think spending time inprofessional discussion and study has brought our faculty and staff together. As we worked to develop a school vision & mission statement, faculty and staff were involved, and it helped increase the unity at [our school].

5)What, if any, effect do you feel your professional development has had on student achievement?

We continue to see improvement and growth through student assessment, and, although it is hard to measure, classroom observation suggests that many teachers are more effective in teaching strategies, classroom management, classroom climate, working with parents, and in overall satisfaction with their teaching abilities – which all impact student success.

It has helped bring some new skills to the classrooms. We have become better at using data to measure student achievement.We have seen our test scores increase and PD is a component that plays a role in that increase.

(Here is a PDF of the responses we received: )

**It was interesting to see how closely some of their answers aligned with much of the information we have gleaned.**

We also found the following sites which are dedicated to looking at rural issues: National Research Center on Rural Education Support The Rural School and Community Trust

While there is not an abundance of research on rural issues we did find a few examples: A LOOK AT THE CONDITION OF RURAL EDUCATION RESEARCH: SETTING A DIRECTION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH Using Evaluation to Ensure Quality Professional Development in Rural Schools