NCREL's Policy Briefs

Professional Development: Changing Times

Indiana

Contact People:
Stan Spencer
Northern Indiana Educational Services Center
56535 Magnetic Drive
Mishawaka, IN 46545

Evelyn Sayers
Indiana Department of Education
Room 229, State House
Indianapolis, IN 46204-2798

The most often discussed issue is the need to find time in the school day to allow teachers to participate in professional development. Today's expectations for teaching, learning, and integrating new methods and technologies ask much of teachers. This need to balance the time for classroom instruction and the time needed for teachers to retool and retrain has become a major issue for the state board of education and the state legislature.

Issues and Agenda

Schools throughout Indiana are not required to follow the same time schedule. This policy becomes an issue only when schools attempt to coordinate interschool programs such as distance learning.

At the elementary level, flexibility of instructional time was needed to enable schools to be more creative. The Indiana State Board of Education recently changed the rules on the amount of time required for each subject area. This change empowers schools to determine the amount of time each day to spend on content areas such as reading and mathematics. This flexibility enables the school to base the time spent on any given subject on learner outcomes rather than on a specific block of time.

The most often discussed issue is the need to find time in the school day to allow teachers to participate in professional development. Today's expectations for teaching, learning, and integrating new methods and technologies ask much of teachers. This need to balance the time for classroom instruction and the time needed for teachers to retool and retrain has become a major issue for the state board of education and the state legislature.

Other issues are:

• Time for planning and implementation of team teaching

• Time for parent-teacher conferences

Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation, Misawaka, Indiana, has developed a corporationwide program that establishes rewards and incentives to teachers who continue to grow professionally.

Actions

• The Indiana Department of Education will study these issues and will hold statewide forums to develop recommendations for the 1995 legislative session.

• The National Commission on Time and Learning report is being reviewed for possible guidance regarding time.

• A few elementary and secondary schools have broken through barriers to give time to professional development.

Stan Spencer, Northern Indiana Educational Services Center, lists some of the schools that have broken through time barriers:

• Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation, Misawaka, Indiana, has developed a corporationwide program that establishes rewards and incentives to teachers who continue to grow professionally. It also has developed a strong "teaming" and "mentor" concept that a majority of the staff has bought into. The Corporation has a full-time staff development person who manages and plans all professional programs. For more information on its programs, contact Jim Welling, at 219/259-7941.

• East High School, Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation, Columbus, Indiana, is featured in a Profile in this issue of Policy Briefs.

• Tippecanoe High School, Mentone, Indiana, has taken a different approach to making time available. The school has established a concentrated "thematic" session once a year. Teachers, staff, community members, people from local businesses, and students get together in January to address a theme that is relevant to the community and the education of the young people in the school system. Last year was the first year for this program; its theme was "The Environment." The principal, Charlie Mills, "pulled out all of the stops" and let his staff plan whatever they wanted; the result was a powerful, exciting nine days of concentrated study and relevant fun. This session clearly "charged up" his staff and connected the high school to the local community. Mr. Mills can be reached at 219/353-7031.

Policy Needs

The relationship between the role of the teacher and instructional time needs to be redefined. Schools may have to use differentiated staffing patterns so that teachers are not expected to provide all child care needs and supervision in addition to teaching.

Policymakers need to provide school principals with effective models of programs and approaches that are working. This information needs to get to the principals - not just to the superintendents - because the principals are key to effective education reform. State and national principals' organizations need to be addressed and provided with models and materials on successful programs.

Posted on March 6, 1995

URL: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/go/94-4in.htm