The State Education Department is seeking public comment on draft state standards for professional development. The standards were developed by the Professional Standards and Practices Board (PSPB) in 2007. The PSPB advises the Regents and Commissioner on issues related to the quality of teaching and teacher preparation. The PSPB believes that New York must establish standards to define professional development and provide better guidance on the implementation of professional development programs in local districts and BOCES.

NYSUT has been a strong advocate for high-quality professional development for teachers, ensuring that teachers are directly involved in the planning process through a majority of teachers on PDP committees and lobbying for funding for teacher centers where professional development is provided by teachers for teachers. Unfortunately, far too many local leaders report that the quality of professional development varies from district to district and professional development plans are not being implemented.

NYSUT urges its PreK-16 members to take this opportunity to review and comment on the preliminary draft, titled Proposed New York State Standards for Professional Development. NYSUT has provided a link to the draft document and Web Response Form to submit your comments to State Education Department's Office of Teaching Initiatives Web site at www.nysed.gov/tcert.

NYSUT would like to know what you think about the standards. Please send your comments about the standards via email to RESMail@nysutmail.org. If you have questions about the survey, please email Kathy Graham-Kelly at kgraham@nysutmail.org.

Based on our review of the proposed standards, please consider the following statements when developing your comments:

1. The introduction should make a compelling case for professional development that meets the needs of both teachers and learners in the 21st. century.

• For example, do the proposed standards reflect the need for teachers to be culturally competent, have the skills to engage parents and family in student learning, integrate career awareness and development across the curriculum, and develop technological literacy?

2. The standards should define the essential elements of high quality professional development, professional learning and good teaching. The AFT and NEA professional development standards articulate the following essential elements of professional development:

• focuses on teachers as central to student learning,

• focuses on individual, collegial, and organizational improvement;

• respects and nurtures the intellectual and leadership capacity of teachers, principals, and others in the school community;

• reflects best available research and practice in teaching, learning, and leadership;

• enables teachers to develop further expertise in subject content, teaching strategies, and uses of technologies essential to teaching;

• includes teacher's ability to analyze and use data to inform instruction;

• promotes continuous inquiry and improvement embedded in the daily life of schools;

• addresses teachers development needs over time from the initial to veteran teacher stage.

• requires substantial time and other resources;

• is planned collaboratively by participants;

• is driven by a coherent long-term plan; and

• is evaluated on the basis of its impact on student learning.

3. The standards should reflect the kinds of professional development are essential to close the achievement gap.

• For example, do the standards address the need for cultural competence training that educators are prepared to teach all students ?

4. The framework should describe accompanying tools, such as rubrics, which are useful in designing, identifying, implementing and evaluating a local district's professional development.

5. The standards should adequately address the infrastructure necessary to support high quality professional development such as leadership, policies, resources, assessment, evaluation, collaborative inquiry, design and equity.

6. The standards need to be linked to the state's professional development regulatory requirements (such as a majority of teachers serving on the professional development planning committee, the use of a needs assessment, and when professional development will occur) to ensure their optimal impact on improving the quality of professional development and to serve as a mechanism to monitor school district compliance to these standards.

The deadline for submission of comments is January 15, 2007.

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Proposed New York State Professional Development Standards November 2007 (Draft)

• Letter from Senior Deputy Commissioner Duncan-Poitier
• Developing the Standards & Invitation to Comment
• Draft Document (WEB) | (WORD)
• Response Form