No. 6175

INSTRUCTION

Series 6000

professional development program

Policy

It is the policy of the Region 15 Board of Education that the primary purpose of professional development is to improve student performance.  A Professional Development program that is designed to maintain, enrich, and/or improve the skills, knowledge, and abilities of the educational personnel is strongly endorsed by the Board of Education.

The search by teachers and administrators to broaden and deepen their understanding of the teaching-learning process, and their perceptions of themselves, colleagues, and students, is the joint responsibility of the individual educator and the Board of Education.

Vital to success is a school district’s willingness to ensure continued professional development of its teachers and administrators and to encourage them to keep abreast of recent thinking in their fields.

It is generally agreed that the most worthwhile professional development activities have some or all of the following elements.

They:

•

focus on the Region 15 Instructional Goals and school-level instructional objectives to improve student performance;

•

are ongoing programs;

•

require the active participation of the professional staff in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of the activity;

•

deal with concrete, day-to-day problems of educators;

•

involve theory, demonstrations, supervised practice, feedback, follow-up observation and support on the job where appropriate;

•

provide for sharing and mutual support among educators, students, and parents;

•

are supported by time and other resources; and

•

all learning experiences for which CEUs are awarded should enrich or improve the skills, knowledge, and abilities of educators to improve student learning.

Adopted:

13

August

1984

Revision Approved:

23

November

1998

Revision Approved:

14

May

2007