Implementation of the Master Plan for Statewide Professional Staff Development for 2013-2014: An Evaluation Study
Author: Hammer, Patricia Cahape
Date: 2014-12-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Statewide Planning,Staff Development,Program Implementation,Professional Personnel,Strategic Planning,Program Effectiveness,Program Evaluation,Efficiency,Barriers,Fidelity,State Standards,Delivery Systems,Educational Cooperation,Educational Objectives,Educational Practices,Knowledge Level,Teacher Attitudes,Teacher Surveys,Librarian Attitudes,Counselor Attitudes,Administrator Attitudes,Learning Experience,Educational Quality,Partnerships in Education,Professional Development,Qualitative Research

This evaluation study examined the effectiveness, efficiency, and impact of the statewide master plan for professional development (PD Master Plan) by investigating seven questions. With regard to effectiveness, (1) What was the level of implementation for the PD Master Plan, overall and by individual providers? (2) What were the impediments, if any, to its full implementation? (3) To what extent did providers' offerings reflect the West Virginia Board of Education (WVBE) Standards for Professional Learning? and (4) To what extent did providers' offerings reflect research-based professional development practices? With regard to efficiency, (5) To what extent did providers collaborate in the delivery of professional development, thereby reducing duplicative efforts? With regard to impact, (6) How well did providers' offerings address the WVBE's 2013-2014 Goals for Professional Learning? and (7) What was the impact of the professional development offered through the 2013-2014 PD Master Plan on educators' knowledge, practice, and attitudes? The unit of analysis for this study was the individual provider required by W. Va. Code §18-2I to participate in the PD Master Plan. This provider group included: the Center for Professional Development (CPD), 2 of the required ten public institutions of higher education (IHEs) with teacher education programs, all 8 regional education service agencies (RESAs), and 11 offices in the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) that provide professional learning experiences to educators. To investigate the performance of these organizations, district central office staff, school administrators, general and special education teachers, instructional support teachers, school librarians/media specialists, and paraprofessionals were surveyed in the professional development sessions they offered to gain their views about the quality of their learning experiences. To investigate the seven evaluation questions, data was collected from providers in the form of &quot;session reports,&quot; which required providers to report for each session they conducted. Some of the major findings for 2013-2014 included: (1) The PD Master Plan included more topics (479), sessions (1,056), and participants (33,196) than in previous years; (2) The Legislature's call for decentralization of professional development seemed to be reflected in the trends for the four major providers in the Plan, with the WVDE decreasing their number of offerings and participants from the previous year, while the regional education service agencies' (RESAs') slate of offerings rose dramatically, as did their participant counts; and (3) While all four of the Board Goals for Professional Learning received coverage, Goal 2 (&quot;Increase deep content knowledge and proficiency in designing and delivering standards-driven instruction and assessments&quot;) was the focus of about 80% of sessions (n = 858) with 73% of attendees (n = 24,233). Two appendices are included: (1) Research-Based PD Practices Index; and (2) Additional Data Tables and Figures. [For the 2012-2013 report, see ED569906.]