What's Happening in State PD -- Guest Discussion

Dear Colleagues:

Welcome to our guest discussion of What's Happening in State Professional Development! Thank you to our guest discussants Nancye Gaj (North Carolina), Cindy Wilson (Washington), and Will Durden (Washington), for sharing their work with us. Their bios are below.

If you haven't yet, please register here for the webinar that is scheduled for this afternoon (Tuesday, January 20, 3:00-4:30 pm Eastern).

In the meantime, let's take this opportunity to begin our discussions now, especially if you cannot attend the webinar. Please share your answers to any of the following questions:

  • What are 1-2 major professional development initiatives in your program or state? What is your role in them? (participant, planner, etc.)
  • What is one PD initiative that you have in the works this year? Or, tell us one PD initiative or success that you are proud of. It could be an initiative in which you helped design, deliver, or in which you participated.
  • What is the greatest challenge you face in providing or participating in PD? Or both?

Looking forward,

Jackie

Jackie Taylor, SME

Evidence-based Professional Development Community of Practice

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Nancye Gaj, Director, Program and Professional Development, College and Career Readiness, North Carolina Community College System Office

Nancye is Director of Program and Professional Development for College and Career Readiness at the NC Community College System. In that role, she has established a comprehensive credentialing system for instructors and developed an organizational infrastructure to support local programs. Prior to joining the system in 2011, Nancye was president of Motheread, Inc., a nationally- acclaimed literacy organization which she founded. In recognition of her innovation in the field of literacy, she received the presidentially-awarded National Humanities Medal. Nancye is a graduate of Duke University and the Graduate School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

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Cynthia “Cindy” Wilson - Policy Associate, Adult Basic Education, Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges

Cindy has twenty one years of experience in Adult Basic Education as tenured faculty, Dean and Washington State Policy Associate. She has extensive background in policy and program development and implementation, outcomes and assessment, and curriculum creation. She has worked state and nationally on the implementation of I-BEST and contextualized instruction specifically. Cindy has worked with legislators to secure funding for statewide program development and implementation. She directed system wide monitoring and compliance reviews in accordance with state and federal regulations. Cindy values and is passionate about creating educational opportunities for students to be successful in reaching their full potential and goal. She has Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education from The Ohio State University and Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction for City University.

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William S. Durden - Policy Associate, Basic Ed for Adults: I-BEST, Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges

William serves as the Basic Education for Adults I-BEST Policy Associate for the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. William earned his MA in English Studies from Western Washington University and his BA in English from Washington State University. Prior to his position with the board he served as faculty at Clark College in Vancouver, WA, where his teaching spanned the pathways of college-level, developmental and adult education courses, including I-BEST.

Comments

Dear Colleagues,

Thank you to all who joined us this afternoon for our kickoff webinar discussion of What’s Happening in State Professional Development. I found the conversations very enlightening and energizing (and I have 36 pages of chat transcripts to prove it!).

I am working my way through the transcripts and I will post a summary of issues raised shortly. But in the meantime, for those of you who participated, what issues resonated most with you from your breakout group discussions? What were some of your key takeaways?

More soon,

Jackie

Jackie Taylor, SME

Evidence-based Professional Development Community of Practice

  • What do you do to make PD accessible given the varied schedules and availability of PT teachers?

We're lucky in Colorado to have an excellent coordinator at the state level (Jane Miller), who organizes monthly PD opportunities in her PD MAPs (http://cde.state.co.us/cdeadult/pdmap).  Each MAP has a central theme and a variety of group and self-study options, followed by a statewide discussion webinar.

The state requires a minimum number of annual PD hours for adult instructors in Colorado. It can be 20, 40, or 90 annual hours, depending on how many hours/week you work, and those hours have to be reported to to the state by the program each year.  CDE provides a handy little reporting tool in an MS Word table, so each teacher can keep track of his/her PD progress through the year.

I am always on the lookout for PD opportunities and we build paid PD time into our budget. Every ESL instructor gets paid for four hours/month for PD, 2 for staff meeting and 2 for independent reading, research, etc.  This remaining 2 PD hours are reportable to the state and can be included on the individual's PD report. We include some PD presentation/activity into our staff meetings. For example, this month, teachers shared their most successful strategies in reading instruction. Next month, we'll explore Webb's Depth of Knowledge vs. Bloom's Taxonomy to get them thinking beyond ESL with their students and more towards the work place, ASE, and higher ed.

  • How do we get teacher “buy-in”?

That can be a tricky one.  Underpaid teachers are just like any other adult learner; the content has to be meaningful and relevant. My challenge as an administrator is to help them recognize the relevance and present it in a meaningful format.  A recent decline in student numbers led to a discussion of what the program was going to do about it.  I turned it back on them by showing them a chart of fall enrolls who stopped attending class with a month of starting. We had a 3-hour (paid time) presentation by an expert on adult learner persistence and all instructors and intake staff are setting personal goals for student retention in their classes.

  • What incentives have others found successful for increasing teacher participation in PD?

  • How do you motivate teachers who don’t seem interested in participating in staff development?

We have high expectations for PD, not in numbers of month PD hours so much as that everyone has to do it and document it.  As I said earlier, if it's relevant and meaningful, the instructors should at least find their motivation. If not, tough as it might be to say, perhaps this isn't the right program for them. The teacher who thinks he/she knows it all and isn't willing to grow and change doesn't belong in our program. This goes for me, the Program Director. Even though I'm not in the classroom much right now, I engage in many hours of PD every month, to keep up on coming trends (CCRS, WIOA, etc.) and current research.

  • How do you maintain teacher involvement in professional development that is intensive and takes place over time?

Each instructor in our program is observed by me (Program Director) or the ESL Program Coordinator.  The observation is of the entire 2-hour class. Following that, the observer and teacher sit down to discuss the observations and pin-point areas in need of improvement (it's almost always teacher language... or too much of it!).  The teacher selects from a shopping list of ideas and employs the changes in his/her classroom.  He/She is then observed by the same person about 4-5 months later to determine if there is visible improvement and to make a plan for further improvement, if needed. 

This all happens in the course of a school year, but teachers can also request a "night off" to get a sub to be able to observe their colleagues in action. This helps build community among the teachers with the aim being excellent instruction. We're a relatively new program with several seasoned teachers on staff who provide guidance and advice to the less experienced teachers.

Dear Colleagues,

Several questions were raised today during the online webinar that we didn't have time to address. Here are some remaining questions and I invite our guests to share their thoughts.

For Cindy Wilson and Will Durden (Washington state):

  • “Now that we know how fewer students are passing the new GED, what do the numbers look like in Washington state? Did the number of GED test takers decrease, increase, or remain about the same?”
  • "When did "Ability to Benefit " come back?"
  • Regarding PD grants: “With your non-competitive federal funds, what are some examples of what people would write?  I noted that the state board was responsible for developing and implementing.  Did I miss something?”

For Nancye Gaj (North Carolina):

  • “Was there an existing adult education specific certification in North Carolina beforehand?”
  • “What do the certificates give the participants? Do some instructional jobs require certification? Are instructors who have certificates paid more? What is the tangible benefit of the certificates?”
  • In general, who is teaching these PD courses?
  • “The data are maintained by the University but do participants earn credits toward a degree or is [it] only continuing education?”
  • “What (if any) costs do the participants bear? Or if none, what $ investment of the state got the credentials off the ground?”
  • Are the courses generally online, hybrid, F2F?
  • Is there a mandatory sequence for teachers taking these courses?
  • Can individuals outside of NC take advantage of the professional development offerings?
  • What is the incentive to participate since the courses are not mandatory?
  • How is the expertise of the content experts developed in/shared with teachers? How much of the certification courses with the specialty certificates in Adult secondary Ed focused on content as opposed to evidence-based teaching practice?

Other questions? Please feel free to post them here.

Thank you,

Jackie

Jackie Taylor, SME

Evidence-based Professional Development Community of Practice

  • “Now that we know how fewer students are passing the new GED, what do the numbers look like in Washington state? Did the number of GED test takers decrease, increase, or remain about the same?” 71% of the students who sat for the entire battery of test passed. Total number of test takers were lower in 2014. This could be a result of more students utilizing HS 21+, or it could be a somewhat skewed result due to the increase in number of test takers at the end of 2013 with the anticipation of the new test.
  • "When did "Ability to Benefit " come back?" Ability to Benefit came back in the Omnibus bill passed by the house and senate at the end of 2013 and thanks in large part to the efforts of Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA.) It is retroactive to July of 2013 but financial aid directors are still waiting to receive guidance.
  • Regarding PD grants: “With your non-competitive federal funds, what are some examples of what people would write?  I noted that the state board was responsible for developing and implementing.  Did I miss something?” They write for a variety of purposes: expanding initiatives, implementation of instructional standards, development of programming such as HS 21+, etc.

 

    I was very interested in what you had to say regarding PD for the team teachers involved with I-Best.  We are interested in doing something similar in our program.  Do you have a link to your website which would have more information on the types of PD you are doing in regards to I-Best?

    Thanks!

    Dear Colleagues,

    In our webinar yesterday, Nancye Gaj shared her work in establishing the NC Teacher Credentialing Project. This project was developed to provide basic skills instructors the teaching skills necessary to provide quality instruction. As a part of that conversation, we learned that NC did not require professional development for teachers. So one theme that surfaced in subsequent conversations centered around whether/how to provide incentives for PT teachers to participate in PD.

    For example:

    • What do you do to make PD accessible given the varied schedules and availability of PT teachers?
    • How do we get teacher “buy-in”?
    • What incentives have others found successful for increasing teacher participation in PD?
    • How do you motivate teachers who don’t seem interested in participating in staff development?
    • How do you maintain teacher involvement in professional development that is intensive and takes place over time?

    A vast majority of adult education teachers are part-time. If you’re a part-time teacher, what has kept you coming back to staff development? What makes you carve out that time in your busy schedule, oftentimes across multiple jobs, to participate in and benefit from PD? What’s your approach?

    If you work in professional development, what have you seen to be effective in reaching PT teachers? What brings them in and involves them in meaningful ways in their own professional growth and learning?

    Looking forward,

    Jackie

    Jackie Taylor, SME

    EBPD Community of Practice

    Hi, Jackie and EBPD CoP Members,

    Thank you for hosting the webinar yesterday.  It was a lively and engaging experience.  I enjoyed hearing the two speakers' perspectives from WA and NC, and having the small group conversation. 

    In my experience, I started working in two part-time positions, when I began teaching English as a Second Language (ESL).  One of the positions was at a community college, the other for the adult ESL program of a public school system, both located in VA.  I was completing my master's degree in adult education at the time, and applied for my state teaching license in adult education.  Once I earned this degree and held the state license, my hourly rate increased with the community college, but not with the public school system. 

    I wonder if others have seen pay discrepancies like this within their state's education system?  I think one incentive for teachers in states that issue adult education licenses, and require PD to maintain them, would be a salary increase.  This should be applied across states' public institutions - both K-12 and higher education.  Does anyone know whether this is the case in their state?

    Thanks again for helping to get the conversation started.  I'm looking forward to the next event in February!

    Best, Mike

    Hi Mike,

    That is a very interesting question and unfortunately I don't have the answer. I'm hoping others here who are from states that offer adult education credentials or degrees will share how their states address this.

    I am curious as to how salary pay rates for adult education teachers compare across states and whether or to what extent rates increase with education.

    Others, thoughts?

    Thanks,

    Jackie Taylor, SME

    Evidence-based Professional Development CoP

    Our situation in Minnesota is a bit unique because our adult education teachers are required to hold a valid K-12 (or ABE) license; therefore, they have a built in incentive to participate in professional development because they need to earn CEUs to maintain their licensure.  In addition to offering CEUs for all PD, we also offer a stipend, sub reimbursement, and sometimes travel reimbursement for any extended PD activity (study circles, PLCs, online courses, etc.).  To reach our part-time teachers (and others), we have begun delivering some of our PD via webinar.  These webinars are frequently recorded and archived so that they may be viewed at a teacher's convenience.  In addition, for some of our priority PD initiatives, we have encouraged program managers to integrate PD into their existing staff meeting or PLC time so that teachers do not have to carve out additional time to attend trainings.

    One strategy that we've found particularly effective in helping teachers stay engaged in extended PD is partnering them with another teacher.  Our numeracy initiative is a year-long commitment that involves participation in 2 online courses, peer observations and 2 face-to-face meetings.  Participants choose a partner (or are assigned to one) and are expected to meet (f2f  or via phone/Skype) with that partner once a week throughout the year. They provide very brief reports on these meetings to the project lead via email.  These partner meetings provide additional accountability and a space for participants to process the course content & reflect on their classroom applications of that content.  We have run a 24-30 person cohort for the past several years, and we have a nearly 100% completion rate.  I think that the partner relationships play a significant role in helping teachers persist in this long-term PD.

    I look forward to hearing what strategies others are using!

    Astrid Liden, Minnesota

    Hi,

    I don’t work in a state system, but I do coordinate PD projects for New England practitioners through NELRC, and I’m writing to applaud Minnesota’s idea of pairing up teachers to support their persistence in extended PD. We borrowed that idea, and many others, for an online Tech Integration Project that we’re so far (knock on wood – we’re currently on step 3, with 22 of 24 persisting) having great success with. The model is this:

    1. Instructors take a facilitated version of the LINCS course, “Integrating Technology into the Adult Ed Classroom,” during which they build a learning community, identify a technology they want to experiment with, and find a partner who has interest in trying out a similar technology.
    2. During the course, they give each other feedback on lesson plans and, ideally, observe each other’s classes.
    3. Then we built upon the LINCS course by having participants (still with partners and facilitator coaching) develop a second lesson that integrates technology, with the added layer that this new lesson be CCR-aligned and include formative assessment.
    4. As a culminating project, instructors prepare a virtual (Screencast) presentation of their work, so that they’re practicing with an additional technology for an additional purpose. This gives them an opportunity to reflect on and articulate what they've learned, and consider what colleagues would want to hear about. These presentations will get archived so that other teachers have access to varied examples of tech integration. Participants who complete all activities receive a $200 stipend.

    I’m not sure how many of the instructors are part-time - I’m going to check – but we tried to build in elements (all online, mostly asynchronous participation, buddies, stipends) that would make it possible for part-timers to participate. I don’t believe there’s any real remedy to that dilemma besides full-time jobs that pay living wages. 

    Andy Nash, New England Literacy Resource Center

    I am late joining but hopefully not too late to keep the conversation going.   I like the ideas proposed by Astrid and Andy.  Engaging the teachers in long term classroom-based projects and offering a stipend for completion was one of the most successful things we did when I was a local administrator for the professional development of our teachers.  The first time around, my PD coordinator had to convince me of the value of paying the stipend (this was the late 1990s) but forming groups with peers interested in one project, assigning a mentor to the team, and then paying stipends for the completion of projects was one of the best things I did for my teachers.   At one point we had 7 different projects at the same time engaging some 40 teachers out of a total of slightly over 100 teachers in my program.  Almost all of them completed their projects and they were invited to a "PD showcase" day where teachers presented their projects to each other and spoke about their experience implementing their projects with their students.  All completers received $200 stipends and their project mentors were paid $500 for the semester.  We did this a few times until the teachers who were interested had already participated and no one else seemed too keen on starting a new project.

    In a conversation about incentives, these projects offered a small monetary one.  At the time, the teachers in my program were making just $18 an hour, so the stipend was only a bit more than 10 hours of work, and yet they put significantly more hours into their projects.  They had little hope of becoming full-time or even enjoying the "status" of adjuncts at the college.  And yet, they were happy to participate because beyond the meager financial incentive they got to work on projects they selected themselves; they had an opportunity to work with their peers, to learn from each other, to enjoy a mentor and, ultimately, to showcase the results of their work.

    I realize that even today many programs cannot afford the roughly $10 grand that the projects cost every semester but, while they lasted, they were one of the best investments I could make on sustained, quality PD.

    federico

    Hi Jackie and all.

    I too very much enjoyed the information-sharing and conversations during the webinar yesterday. I'll admit that I pretty much lurked, as I do not represent or work in any particular state and so did not feel that I could contribute much to the back and forth on what different states are up to. And as an "outside" PD provider I don't believe I'm in a good position to talk about what might motivate teachers working in any particular state/instructional context to participate in PD. Having said all that, I do have some thoughts...:-)

    As regards teacher certification/licensure systems, I feel strongly that any organizations that decide to establish these as paths to greater professionalization of their workforces need to offer increased salary as an incentive. That feels absolutely "bottom-line" to me -- it is fair, appropriate, and how (most of) the rest of the working world works, yes? So I'm with Mike when he expresses concern about the difference between community colleges and adult education programs in their policies for compensating credentialled teachers. But I also fully appreciate how the current underfunding of our field makes it unlikely that many states are going to be able to organize their limited resources so that certification leads to higher salaries. I guess, in this case, it feels like the question is not so much "do AE teachers need incentives", but rather, "do states who want a professional AE workforce need to provide incentives", to insure participation in PD.

    As for a more global response to the question, my gut response is -- of course! Don't we all need incentives to do our best? So much of our concern reflected in the webinar conversations seemed to be centered on part-time and volunteer instructors, so if that's the case we are not talking about salaries that might be increased. But we are talking about what might lead someone to make PD a priority given all of the other ways that these folks need to use their time and energy. What makes a person want to put in the extra effort?

    I guess I am a hopeless idealist, but I still believe that 1) most teachers actually want to be excellent and effective in their work, and 2) people will do amazing things if they feel valued and appreciated. So while I have no specific suggestions (again, I don't think I'm the best person to offer them anyway) it feels to me that we would benefit by being very clear with teachers about why/how the structure and content of the PD we choose to offer is designed to help them reach their own goals around quality, effective instruction. And we can think about (and maybe ask teachers about as well?) how, within our limited resources, we can make PD participation an enjoyable experience that shows some measure of our appreciation.

    Thanks for making this ongoing conversation possible!

     

    I agree with Peggy that if states make certification of adult educators a mandate they also need to offer incentives (other than the fear of losing their jobs.) In an underfunded system it is nearly impossible to offer additional salary, and permanent or full-time employment to part-time teachers so it is left to teachers to find intrinsic or personal motivators to pursue these certificates or credentials.  As I mentioned earlier in another posting, small stipends for PD completion and the opportunity to work with peers may be incentive enough for some.  But is it fair to leave it to the local program? Programs that can afford the additional stipends will engage teachers in sustained PD and others will not.  Should this be then a state system responsibility? 

    In a conversation about the professionalization of the field, do we want certificates or would we rather have a system that rewards teacher competencies, expertise and success? And if the answer is that more PD rather than the pursuit of teaching credentials is important, then how do we structure PD and what incentives can we offer systemically for teachers who participate?

    I'm with you on that one, Peggy ( 1) most teachers actually want to be excellent and effective in their work, and 2) people will do amazing things if they feel valued and appreciated. )  and I remember hearing the comment "Adult educators aren't in it for the money" more times than I can remember. And we all shared that comment freely. I wonder now if that's changed. Sure, I can almost bet almost everyone on this board could get a job outside of Adult education making more money than we are now. But we're still here. So maybe it's not JUST a financial incentive (and by the way, how have states  (and non-state programs), like NELRC) that pay incentives budgeted that?), but, like Peggy said, also the act of feeling valued and appreciated that encourages a teacher to go above and beyond.

    Many years ago I was asked to review PD Portfolios for my colleagues in Tennessee. Their PD was on a tier system and teachers were rewarded a one time stipend for advancing a level in their PD performance system. I can't talk much about it, as I can't remember.. but maybe the folks at the Literacy Center (CLEE) could address it. 

    Dear Colleagues,

     

    In the webinar the other day, I realized that I really needed ideas from states that are structured like my own.  I'm looking for ideas about how other Adult Ed State offices that are under the K-12 umbrella (as opposed to DOL, Tech/Community Colleges, etc.)  model their PD.  We are considering a major restructuring of our system, and I would LOVE your help!!  In other words, how do you facilitate, plan, and structure the use of your leadership funds.  For example, do you contract this out?  Do you have a grant competition?  If either of those, how do you control the quality and ensure the PD is in alignment with the state and federal regulations.  If you handle it in-house, how do you do that?  How many other state staff do you have dedicated to Adult Ed?  How many SME contracts do you have?  Are they with individuals or consulting firms? If you also use state funding to support PD, is that structured the same way?

    Your examples / models / narratives / diagrams / flow charts / smoke signals, etc. would be most appreciated!!

    Thanks in advance!

    Tonya Creamer
    Education Associate
    Office of Adult Education
    South Carolina Department of Education

    Dear Colleagues:

    The webinar archive of Part I: What's Happening in State Professional Development is now available on the LINCS YouTube Channel here.

    During the webinar, guest discussants Nancye Gaj (North Carolina), Cindy Wilson (Washington), and Will Durden (Washington) shared their work in North Carolina and Washington State PD. We then divided into small groups to share our own work and discuss trending topics in adult literacy professional development. Small groups then reconvened as a large group and reported out. Approximately 36 pages of chat transcripts were generated by participants. Broad-based trending topics from the chats were:

    • Certification and credentialing
    • Providing incentives for PD
    • Designing /delivering effective professional development
    • Implementing what is learned from PD
    • Paid PD  

    Part II of the discussion went into greater detail in the trends listed above and a summary of Part II is online here.

    Don't forget to tell us what your top goals are this spring and summer for your own professional development!

    Thanks and looking forward,

    Jackie Taylor, SME

    Evidence-based Professional Development Group Community of Practice