Common use of Continuous Professional Development Clause in Contracts

Continuous Professional Development. High quality and continuous professional development is the fourth systems coaching domain; it is the umbrella over all MTSS coaching activities. The literature is clear that effective professional development should be jobEembedded, evidenceEbased, and reflective (Learning Forward, 2011) where educators have the opportunity to collaborate and learn together. School and district leaders are responsible for building such capacity for effective professional development practices (King, 2011; Hall & ▇▇▇▇, 2011). In this distributive model, the MTSS leadership team members are tasked with providing ongoing professional development to their staff, matched to the needs of the staff, within a continuous improvement model. The MTSS leadership team is supported in this effort by those responsible for systems coaching within each particular setting. Professional development, also known as professional learning, is applied through a cycle of continuous improvement based upon outcomes of problemEsolving processes operating at every level (individual, smallEgroup classroom, school, district, state) of the educational organization (Learning Forward, 2011). !"#$%&# ()*+,-./ 0)1%2 Professional Development Shared Leadership Support Problem-Solving Facilitation Skills Content Knowledge 24 The MTSS coaching model above is comprised of the four domains that can fall loosely into a conceptualEbased hierarchical relationship such that problemEsolving facilitation skills and content knowledge combine to inform and support skill development of leadership team members (shared leadership support). In turn, the leadership team develops a plan of action for implementing MTSS and works to incorporate it into their school/district improvement efforts annually. Professional development is a major mechanism for ensuring sustainability of what works and introducing more complex or needed improvements over time regarding staff knowledge and skills to increase efficiency and effectiveness of dataEbased decision making as well as instructional planning and evaluating of student success. Primary responsibility for guiding and monitoring implementation and sustainability of MTSS over time would be expected to fall on the leadership team. ProblemEsolving facilitation skills and content knowledge among leadership team members would be expected to build over time through support of systems coaching as a foundation for empowering the leadership team to then provide guidance and support to all staff toward full implementation of MTSS (shared leadership support). Professional development for educators, coaching support staff, and leadership team members would be considered a core mechanism for ensuring an evolving examination of effectiveness toward sustainability of what works over time. As with students in schools, educators acquiring new concepts and skills require scaffolding within the context of which the new concepts and skills are to be used for successful learning to take place. The Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR) model has been used in schools for decades and describes how teachers continually change their instructional interactions and teaching methods as students increase proficiency over time (▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ & ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇, 1983). The GRR model suggests that instruction on any new task requires different proportions of teacher and learner responsibility over time. Through a sequence of description, guided practice, corrective feedback, and independent practice and application, the responsibility of learning gradually shifts from teacher to student. Collet (2008) extends and adapts this GRR model to adult learning tasks when supported by coaching activities, calling it the Gradual Increase of Responsibility (GIR) Model for Coaching. By providing scaffolding through demonstration, modeling, guided practice, and feedback, the individual providing coaching gradually moves the learner toward independence and peer collaboration. Through progressive scaffolding, the coaching support changes over time to match the educators’ increasing ability level and altering needs.

Continuous Professional Development. High quality and continuous professional development is the fourth systems coaching domain; it is the umbrella over all MTSS coaching activities. The literature is clear that effective professional development should be jobEembeddedjob-­‐embedded, evidenceEbasedevidence-­‐based, and reflective (Learning Forward, 2011) where educators have the opportunity to collaborate and learn together. School and district leaders are responsible for building such capacity for effective professional development practices (King, 2011; Hall & ▇▇▇▇, 2011). In this distributive model, the MTSS leadership team members are tasked with providing ongoing professional development to their staff, matched to the needs of the staff, within a continuous improvement model. The MTSS leadership team is supported in this effort by those responsible for systems coaching within each particular setting. Professional development, also known as professional learning, is applied through a cycle of continuous improvement based upon outcomes of problemEsolving problem-­‐solving processes operating at every level (individual, smallEgroup small-­‐group classroom, school, district, state) of the educational organization (Learning Forward, 2011). !"#$%&# ()*+,-./ 0)1%2 Professional Development Shared Leadership Support Problem-Solving Facilitation Skills Content Knowledge 24 24‌ The MTSS coaching model above is comprised of the four domains that can fall loosely into a conceptualEbased conceptual-­‐based hierarchical relationship such that problemEsolving problem-­‐solving facilitation skills and content knowledge combine to inform and support skill development of leadership team members (shared leadership support). In turn, the leadership team develops a plan of action for implementing MTSS and works to incorporate it into their school/district improvement efforts annually. Professional development is a major mechanism for ensuring sustainability of what works and introducing more complex or needed improvements over time regarding staff knowledge and skills to increase efficiency and effectiveness of dataEbased data-­‐based decision making as well as instructional planning and evaluating of student success. Primary responsibility for guiding and monitoring implementation and sustainability of MTSS over time would be expected to fall on the leadership team. ProblemEsolving Problem-­‐solving facilitation skills and content knowledge among leadership team members would be expected to build over time through support of systems coaching as a foundation for empowering the leadership team to then provide guidance and support to all staff toward full implementation of MTSS (shared leadership support). Professional development for educators, coaching support staff, and leadership team members would be considered a core mechanism for ensuring an evolving examination of effectiveness toward sustainability of what works over time. As with students in schools, educators acquiring new concepts and skills require scaffolding within the context of which the new concepts and skills are to be used for successful learning to take place. The Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR) model has been used in schools for decades and describes how teachers continually change their instructional interactions and teaching methods as students increase proficiency over time (▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ Pearson & ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇, 1983). The GRR model suggests that instruction on any new task requires different proportions of teacher and learner responsibility over time. Through a sequence of description, guided practice, corrective feedback, and independent practice and application, the responsibility of learning gradually shifts from teacher to student. Collet (2008) extends and adapts this GRR model to adult learning tasks when supported by coaching activities, calling it the Gradual Increase of Responsibility (GIR) Model for Coaching. By providing scaffolding through demonstration, modeling, guided practice, and feedback, the individual providing coaching gradually moves the learner toward independence and peer collaboration. Through progressive scaffolding, the coaching support changes over time to match the educators’ increasing ability level and altering needs.