Professional Learning

Some of the previous work of Kansas Learning First Alliance's work in Professional Learning includes the following products and activities.  Follow the links for more detail. 

Vision - Professional Learning Position Paper

The position paper provides basic insights to how a school or district can alter its professional development practices to positively affect student achievement.

Detail - Background on The Rubric

The rubric provides detailed descriptions of the characteristics of effective professional development programs.  It allows a school to reflect on practice and identify areas for improvement.  Learn more about the rubric at this link.

Substance - The Rubric

View the rubric either online or download a PDF file from this page.

Action - Summit Conference on Professional Development

Check this link to a news release  detailing the first Professional Development Summit Conference jointly sponsored by the Kansas Learning First Alliance, the Kansas State Department of Education, and the Kansas Staff Development Council.

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Additional Sources & Resources -

KSDE - Kansas In-service Program Guidelines

The Kansas Inservice Program (KIP) Guidelines went into effect on July 1, 2003.  To access the guidelines, follow the link above to the KSDE web site.  Next, click the School Imp/Accred link under KSDE Divisions.  Click Staff Development Information at the bottom of the page and finally click to open the Guidelines.

National Staff Development Council (NSDC) - Standards for Staff Development

The NSDC's revised standards provide direction for designing a professional development experience that ensures educators acquire the necessary knowledge and skills.  For a fuller discussion of the twelve standards (revised from the 1995 version with 27 standards), see the NSDC Standards Home Page on the web.
 

Confidence in Kansas Public Education Task Force.

Data gathered through the Quality Performance Accreditation (QPA) process has shown that the greatest achievement gap occurs in schools with high ethnic populations, as well as a high percentage of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches. The schools receiving the Challenge Award all have such populations, but have managed to post state assessment scores above what would normally be expected among those populations. View the honorees and practices to which they attribute their success.