Contact People:
George Woons
Superintendent
Kent Intermediate School District
2930 Knapp NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49505
Linda Forward
Michigan Department of Education
P.O. Box 30008
Lansing, MI 48909
The major issue is the reconstruction of the school day/year in order to accommodate the needs of professional staff to collaborate in the development of programs and services leading to improved achievement for all students. While strategies have been used in a variety of school sites throughout the state, opposition comes from community school boards and teacher organizations.
The major issue is the reconstruction of the school day/year in order to accommodate the needs of professional staff to collaborate in the development of programs and services leading to improved achievement for all students. While strategies have been used in a variety of school sites throughout the state, opposition comes from community school boards and teacher organizations.
Extended school year grants have been available to a limited number of schools in order to develop and implement a 210-day school year. In the first year of the grant process, schools receive small grants to plan for an extended school year. In the second through fourth years of the grant cycle, schools receive either $285 or $250 per pupil to help implement the program. At the end of the four-year period, schools are expected to institutionalize the programs through internal support mechanisms.
Within the reform legislation is a provision for schools to receive approximately $4.25/ pupil for professional development activities. Receipt of the money is dependent on the creation of a professional development plan that is related to the district school improvement plan and the assessed needs of the district's students. Included in the legislation is also a provision that all initial service teachers must receive 15 days of intensive professional development regarding induction into teaching. The 15 days are to be spread over the first three years of service.
In addition to the activities and strategies already mentioned above, schools within the state are using systemic change programs such as RE: Learning. Each of these programs requires school staff to consider the use of time and the ways that the staff may be able to meet the needs of students and themselves more effectively. These efforts are sporadically supported by the state with limited fiscal and human resources.
Other actions include the following:
Although local district school boards recognize the importance of professional development in order to effect real change, it is extremely difficult for them to prioritize resources, including time, for that purpose.
An Intermediate School District Perspective
By George Woons, Kent Intermediate School District, Grand Rapids, Michigan
State policymakers need to do less - not more - regarding mandates for educational reform. Much of the legislation is penalty-driven and does not consider time and resources needed for local districts and intermediate service agencies to comply with the mandates. This past year, policymakers in Michigan did not seek the input of educators; the resulting legislation is politically motivated and is therefore less likely to effect real change in teaching and learning. Policymakers need to fund mandates that require additional time - e.g., increase in days of instruction or provide 15 days of professional development for new teachers. Professional development funds allocated by the state are greatly inadequate. Much of the school reform mandated by the legislators requires misdirected time of educators. Much of the instruction-related reform conflicts with current theory and best practice.
Although local district school boards recognize the importance of professional development in order to effect real change, it is extremely difficult for them to prioritize resources, including time, for that purpose.
State policymakers need to recognize the benefit of local district consortium arrangements with Intermediate Service Agencies. Our Intermediate Service Agency provides many professional development opportunities to our constituent local districts that are cost-effective and based on mutually agreed upon times - e.g., 18 days of social studies curriculum development time already scheduled for 1994-95. Our districts participate in many professional development consortium arrangements, particularly where grants are involved - e.g., Eisenhower Math/Science and Drug-Free Schools funds. Consortium arrangements place the burden of the time required for grant writing and related reports, plus program planning and arrangements, on service agency staff rather than on local district staff. In addition, duplication of time and efforts is avoided.
Via the State Department of Education, more and more responsibilities for monitoring local district compliance with legislative mandates are delegated to the Intermediate Service Agencies. These responsibilities not only require an inordinate amount of our staff time and resources, but put the Intermediate Service Agency in a tenuous position with districts that we want to serve. Time and resources would be better spent on professional development.
Educators need time for in-depth discussion, reflection, and interaction, and time to develop the tools to carry out any restructuring initiatives. They need time to be educated through a variety of professional development strategies and to apply the learning.
An SEA Perspective
By Linda Forward, Michigan Department of Education
Before policymakers develop useful guidelines for school personnel regarding the use of time, they must understand and appreciate that a need exists. Policymakers do not seem to accept the requests of educators to provide time for "retooling." The notion of suspending schooling for a year is made only partially in jest. Educators need time for in-depth discussion, reflection, and interaction, and time to develop the tools to carry out any restructuring initiatives. They need time to be educated through a variety of professional development strategies and to apply the learning.
Policymakers need to understand the need for professional development. They need to understand that although an educator may have the capacity to perform a task, he or she may not have the ability to teach the skills to perform that task. Recently, a legislator questioned the need for teachers to be taught the pedagogy that supports the teaching of writing skills. Since teachers could write, he reasoned, all teachers could teach writing across the curriculum.
Once policymakers understand and accept the need for professional development, they need to accept their role in developing and maintaining the infrastructure to support "retooling." Most educators are doing the best they know how to do and need only to learn new skills to do better. Once they learn these new skills, educators need a mechanism that supports them in implementing these skills. This goal cannot be achieved if the infrastructure for professional development is not available. Such an infrastructure would include human and fiscal resources in a geographically convenient location so that support can be ongoing.
The nature of professional development needs to change from the "half-day, latest fad" training that we have seen in the past to long-term, sustained initiatives that directly improve the learning of all students. Educators need policymakers who understand that time includes a span of time consistent with change theory - time to learn what they need to know, to develop strategies to implement new knowledge, and to demonstrate that this knowledge has improved the achievement of all students.
Posted on March 6, 1995
URL: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/go/94-4mi.htm