DATA DRIVES Change: Linking Professional Development to Improved Outcomes

Abstract A common dilemma facing administrators and staff developers is how to design and deliver professional development activities that produce an impact in terms of capacity building, teacher learning and development, and student outcomes. The challenges this presents are even more marked in rural areas, where school systems must also contend with additional barriers when attempting to implement strategic changes. To encourage the development of productive professional development, many studies are beginning to indicate the importance of making evaluation central to the design of professional development. This article presents a mnemonic strategy-DATA DRIVES Change-to guide the design, development and evaluation of professional development in rural settings. In addition, the article provides a practical application of the strategy to an ongoing rural professional development project. A common dilemma for staff developers and administrators in rural schools is identifying how to meet the professional development needs of faculty and staff at the same time as meeting the goals of the school improvement plan and the demands of federal and state mandates (Mizell, 2001). Limited resources and the knowledge that yet again the faculty's wish list will include training on managing disruptive behavior, preparing students for statewide assessments, and how to get the parents of challenging children involved makes the task daunting and somewhat unrewarding. Why is it that professional development activities appear to produce little impact in terms of capacity building, teacher learning and development, and student outcomes? As Mizell (2001) pointed out, "for too long the professional development practices of too many school systems and schools have led nowhere. Year after year, their staff development has amounted to little more than a disparate set of adult learning activities with few demonstrable results other than participants' mounting frustration" (pp.18-19). Identifying how to design and deliver more effective professional development is central to the quest to improve the translation and use of research findings for educators, policy makers, and other stakeholders (Carnine, 1997; Greenwood & Abbott, 2002). The stakes have been raised with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation (Council for Exceptional Children, 2002) in which the United States government declared that it will "judge all schools by one measure and one measure alone: whether every boy and every girl is learning-regardless of race, family background, or disability status" (President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education, 2002, p.4). The challenges this presents are even more marked in rural areas, where school systems must also contend with additional barriers when attempting to implement strategic changes such as those advocated by NCLB. These barriers include a limited tax base for needed revenues, a need to deliver service over a wide geographic area, unqualified or underqualified teachers, high transportation costs, and a lack of access to effective professional development (Ludlow, 1998; Helge, 1992). In recognition of the challenge facing education in general, and rural schools in particular, the National Staff Development Council (2002), as well as other professionals in this field (Guskey, 2002), have generated guidelines to assist administrators and staff developers in planning effective professional development activities. These guidelines include the importance of making evaluation central to the development of professional development to enhance its success (Guskey, 2002), assessing the context (participant characteristics, organization characteristics, and attributes of the training activities), and using this information to inform the design and delivery of professional development (Mitchem, Wells, & Wells, 2003; NSDC, 2002), Provided in this article is a mnemonic strategy (see Figure 1 ), incorporating both these guidelines and a practical application of this strategy, to help administrators and staff developers in designing, developing, delivering, and evaluating professional development that produces change in teacher practice and, ultimately, improved student outcomes. …