Top Nine List

If I had to write a report tomorrow supporting staff development programs built upon university/school district collaborations, these are the top nine pieces I would use.

General Statements about the ways in which professional development is presently conducted:
1. Thomas Corcoran, Helping Teachers Teach Well: Transforming Professional Development (Philadelphia: CPRE, 1995) here

A thorough documentation of why the present system of professional development is so problematic.

2. Robert Stout, Staff Development Policy: Fuzzy Choices in an Imperfect Market
Education Policy Analysis Archives, V. 4, N. 2, 2/17/96 here

Another good overview of howchoices made at a policy level make their way into professional practice. No data.

3, Ann Lieberman, Practices that Support Teacher Development: Transforming Conceptions of Professional Learning (Directorate for Education and Human Resources) here

This brief piece from a Columbia professor stresses that the kinds of learning experiences we want for children are often “denied to teachers.” She offers a succinct overview of the possibilities for new types of teacher learning.

4. Thomas Guskey and Dennis Sparks, Exploring the Relationship Between Staff Development and Improvements in Student Learning Journal of Staff Development. 17 (4)
(this journal can be found on-line here.

A short theoretical essay that outlines the variables necessary to consider in constructing studies of staff development.

Analysis of Professional Development Programs
1. Kate Riordan Teacher Leadership as a Strategy for Instructional Improvement: The Case of the Merck Institute for Scientific Education (Philadelphia: CPRE: 2003) Click here
An intense program spread over several districts, this collaboration between Penn, Merck and schoolteachers appears to have been very productive. The researchers found that teachers were much more willing to act as leaders and to fill leadership roles in their schools. In addition, teachers felt that the program helped them to develop new methods and new communities, both formal and informal.

The researchers used multiple surveys to assess their work. They surveyed the lead teachers, looking to see their perceptions of their work in the school as well as their continued leadership, even as the program ended. They also used a classroom scale to judge the quality of all teachers who had participated in any way. (The scale was developed by Horizon Research Incorporated.)

2. Cohen and Hill: Instructional Policy and Classroom Performance: The Mathematics Reform in California (Philadelphia: CPRE, 1998) Click here.

This assessment of how teachers came to grapple with new standards is cited routinely.

They offer careful conclusions about their data- aggregate school scores, combined with a measurement of teacher participation, compared with three variables- percentage of students receiving free lunch, a teacher estimation of working conditions, and a fraction of teacher replacement units (developed in the program.) While they do emphasize the great importance of teacher involvement in debating, learning and teaching new standards, they also point out the multiple difficulties in gathering effective numbers.

3. Garet et al What Makes Professional Development Effective
American Education Research Journal, V. 38 N.4, Winter 2001.
(Available via the Penn Library Web Site; will make hard copy as well)

This project was a large scale survey of professional development across the United States that came to the following conclusions: first, teachers will do best when the activities are hands-on and fits well with their current classroom activities. Second, programs that occur over an extended duration and that offer collective participation (from the same school) also are likely to improve quality of instruction.

4. Bruce Joyce, Exploring Staff Development Theories: The Ames Study (1994)
(Available via Penn library, ERIC database, search terms Ames and staff development; I can send the .pdf as well)

This study surveyed the staff development program for an entire city featuring three approaches: school wide action research, funded university work and study of district wide views of literature instruction. Teachers met regularly to discuss their progress. The data comes primarily from a survey of the teachers; in addition, they had full access to the standardized test data for the district and were able to make some generalizations about the positive impact of their staff development on student performance. I hope that somewhere these folks have put together a cleaner version of this study- it reads like an economics text and doesn’t seem to emphasize their results very well.
As a model though, it seems like it might be very helpful.

5. Judith Langer, Excellence in English in Middle and High School: How Teachers’ Professional Lives Support Student Achievement, American Educational Research Journal, V. 37 N.2, Summer 2000, pp.397-439.
Click here.

Looks at 40+ teachers in multiple states using ethnographic techniques; students and teacher journals and portfolios were utilized. Teacher success seen as a result of participating in multiple diverse communities; also emphasizes the role of networks and the significance of teacher agency around curriculum/pedagogy in improving student performance.

Not data driven, but a solid ethnographic effort that really stresses the importance of teacher collaboration with other professionals.