Margaret B. Tinzmann

Margaret B. Tinzmann, senior program researcher at North Central Regional Educational Laboratory in Oak Brook, Illinois, talks about evaluation to determine the effect of professional development on student learning. Excerpted from an interview with Margaret B. Tinzmann (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 1997).

"The mason school in Boston started their professional development about five year ago, and right from the beginning, they were keenly aware of the need to evaluate what they were doing. They used a lot of traditional type of measurements that most of us what think about, such as standardized tests, national standardized tests, locally developed tests, classroom observation and so forth, all these things in the areas of reading and math and some in writing showed some improvement in student performance. But they also had some less traditional measures that they used. One of their goals was to increase student enrollment, and so they kept track of that over the years. They also kept track of the number of students who transferred out of the school, which decreased."

This Critical Issue was written by Cathy J. Cook, Mathematics Education and Professional Development Specialist, Midwest Consortium for Mathematics and Science Education, North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, and Carole S. Fine, Director of Professional Development, North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.

Development and production of this Critical Issue were supported in part by the Midwest Consortium for Mathematics and Science Education.

Date posted: 1997