Allocate sufficient resources to professional development to provide release time, access to consultants, participation in professional meetings, membership in professional associations, and the purchase of other school improvement tools. Ask the superintendent to evaluate and report to you on the effects of professional development expenditures on teaching and learning. Also, ask that student progress be measured by various means in addition to standardized tests. Consider each policy from the perspective of whether it respects and enhances the professional capacity of educators to solve important problems. Because improvement cannot be mandated, build commitment and energy by meaningfully involving teachers and administrators in decision making.
School boards make dozens of important decisions each year.
Few are as important, however, as those that accelerate student learning through teacher learning. That learning begins in the board room. Dennis Sparks is executive director of the National Staff Development Council. Copyright 2001, National School Boards Association. This article may be printed out and photocopied for individual or educational use, provided this copyright notice appears on each copy.