I have to agree with David.  In any of the research we have conducted,
we have not seen accountability in professional develop.  The very few
exceptions are research and development projects that have specific
funding for professional development. Such studies have data collection
requirements. In AIRs conduct of the Adult Numeracy Project we conducted
an environmental scan of numeracy professional development.  The
project, TIAN, funded by NSF had an evaluation component that looked at
the impact of professional development.  It conducted pre-and post-tests
of teachers and incorporated classroom observations of a small sample of
teachers that had participated in the TIAN training, among other
activities.  However, as David points out, such activities are very
costly.  In addition, it is difficult to gain information about effects
on learners as adult students move in and out of the system. 

For an overview of professional development accountability practices in
numeracy professional development check out An Environmental Scan of
Adult Numeracy and Initiative Practices at:   
http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/research/progs/adulted/mathescan.doc

Renee

American Institutes for Research 
1000 Thomas Jefferson, NW 
Washington, DC 20007-3541 
202-403-5327 
rsherman at air.org 


-----Original Message-----
From: professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David J.
Rosen
Sent: Monday, January 07, 2008 9:36 AM
To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1831] Is Professional
Developmentaccountable?

Jackie and others,

Since you have opened up the discussion more broadly to professional
development and accountability in general, here are my thoughts:

At the risk of offending some people, I'll speak my mind on this issue.
I don't think we have good accountability for professional development
in adult literacy education and I don't see that we soon will. I believe
what we often have is the worst kind of "make-do"  
accountability.  There are reasons, sad though they are, for this
predicament.

True professional development accountability would be built on what we
know about good practice from many classroom studies. This research
would involve collecting baseline data on what participating teachers
know and do in the classroom, and how their students perform. It would
involve a professional development training intervention under
conditions that would have as few confounding variables as possible --
it's not an easy task to arrange such an intervention in education. The
studies would include control groups with teachers who did not have the
training. The interventions would be specific sets of methods,
techniques or approaches, ones for which we already have qualitative or
other evidence that there is likelihood that the change(s) in practice
would positively affect student learning. The research would have
ongoing observations to determine how the intervention, the new methods,
techniques or approaches, was actually being implemented in the
classroom, and it would require post-assessment of learners and teachers
to determine changes in teaching and learning practices and learning
outcomes.  
There would be many studies of this kind on which to base decisions
about good practice, and then to hold teachers and administrators
accountable for providing good practice that leads to positive learner
outcomes, and professional developers accountable for providing
effective professional development.

Does this sound like experimental design research? When was the last
time we had experimental design research in adult literacy education  
professional development? I cannot cite a single example. Can you?   
Why don't we have this research? The simple truth is, it's expensive,
and Congress has demonstrated, through the elimination of funding for a
national center for adult literacy research that it does not care  
to spend money on research for adult literacy education.   
Furthermore, even if this were to change with a new administration and
Congress, the chances of doing these kinds of (expensive) professional
development studies in adult literacy education are slim.

Meanwhile, we have "make-do" accountability. In way too many states
professional development providers and/or teachers are asked to keep
track of and report the number of hours they offer or participate in
professional development, or practitioners are asked to accumulate
graduate credits, continuing education units or professional development
points. I understand why these requirements are in place, but I know of
no evidence in adult literacy education that shows that any of these
bean counting strategies result in improved teacher performance in the
classroom, not to mention improved learner outcomes.

It makes much more sense to me, if we want professional development
accountability, not to count hours or activities or credits, but  to
define a set of practitioner standards, including content knowledge and
teaching skills, and to ask teachers and other practitioners to show
they are making progress in reaching these standards. Teachers would use
an individual professional development plan and a variety of resources
and activities and performance assessments, to meet these standards.
Professional developers' accountability would be linked to their
effectiveness in helping teachers reach the standards.  It might also
make sense to set aside paid professional development time to enable
teachers to work on attaining these standards, however,  as professional
development accountability needs to be performance-based, not based on
participation in activities, a better compensation model might instead
be to pay for demonstrated attainment of new competencies or standards
in salary increments. Or both.

Some professional developers, doing the best they can with the meager
resources they have, conscientiously collect baseline teacher and
student data, provide well-designed interventions, and collect post
intervention student and teacher data. This is good, the best we can do
for now, and perhaps over a long period of time we can acquire enough
evidence to persuade Congress that they should invest in gold standard
adult literacy education research in areas where there is such evidence.
We should support more of these heroic professional development research
efforts instead of mindless requirements to count hours, credits, and
certificates that at best are annoying and at worst take time away from
teachers' and professional developers'  
meaningful work.

What do you think? Do agree or disagree? Speak your mind.

David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net



On Jan 6, 2008, at 8:52 PM, Taylor, Jackie wrote:


> Good day or evening, all!

>

> Recently, Cristine Smith circulated a survey about "Accountability and



> Professional Development" - specifically, the survey asks professional



> development (PD) providers if PD related to assessment and 

> accountability training was required before the advent of the National



> Reporting System (NRS), in the first two years after the NRS, and now.



> It asks to what extent PD providers think that the accountability 

> system has affected the types of professional development provided in 

> their state, and to comment on what the effect has been 

> (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?

> sm=TseraqLIt9aH5FJ5TV3ENQ_3d_3d).

>

>

>

> These questions have gotten me to thinking about accountability in 

> general, which brings me to a new question for the group.

>

>

>

> As noted a while back on this list (http://wiki.literacytent.org/

> index.php/Accountability) accountability might be viewed as a process 

> that starts and ends with learning; a kind of multilane highway where 

> all parties involved have levels of accountability that they should in



> fact meet - including the learner.

>

>

>

> Adult literacy professional development provides accountability 

> systems training to help some teachers and programs "be accountable" 

> to funders and presumably to learners. In essence, we have 

> accountability in professional development, but do we have 

> accountability _for_ professional development?

>

>

>

> Is professional development accountable for teacher and student 

> learning?

>

>

>

> If so, then to what extent is it (or can it be) practiced? What does 

> it look like? How does accountability for professional development 

> work? After all, professional development is an important party at the



> table of adult literacy education.

>

>

>

> I look forward to learning your thoughts this week.

>

>

>

> Best, Jackie

>

>

>

> Jackie Taylor, Adult Literacy Professional Development List Moderator,



> jataylor at utk.edu

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> ----------------------------------------------------

> National Institute for Literacy

> Adult Literacy Professional Development mailing list 

> professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov

>

> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to 

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>

> Email delivered to djrosen at comcast.net

>

> Professional Development section of the Adult Literacy Education Wiki 

> http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/

> Adult_Literacy_Professional_Development


David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net



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