Key 4 – Eastern Middle School - DEMO

Personal and Professional Learning

There is an evolving consensus among educators, parents, researchers, politicians and the public that high quality professional development for all school professional is essential to help all students achieve to high academic standards. There is no consensus, however, as to what is meant by high quality professional development. In high performing schools, professional development is: (1) rooted in the context of the school’s improvement efforts and the everyday practices of teachers and education support professional; (2) focused on the expansion and elaboration of the staff’s professional knowledge base including content knowledge related to standards and assessment, pedagogical knowledge and process knowledge in the areas of decision making and problem solving; (3) planned, created, delivered and evaluated through a collaborative process among the school staff; and (4) provided in traditional and non-traditional modes including mentoring opportunities, co-teaching and discussion groups.