Original Charge and Guiding Principles
- Recognizing the importance of teacher professional development in efforts to improve education for all children, Dr. Grasmick convened the Council in January 2003. She charged the group with three tasks:
- Examine current teacher professional development policies and programs at the state and local levels
- Set standards as a means of articulating a Maryland-specific, policy-relevant definition of high-quality professional development
- Offer recommendation for improving professional development to ensure that it meets the new standards
- Currently the Council has 30 members representing a broad cross section of professional development stakeholders. Jackie Haas (Superintendent of Harford County Public Schools), Hanne Mawhinny (Coordinator, Department of Education Leadership) and Colleen Seremet (Assistant State Superintendent, Division of Instruction) serve as co-chairpersons.
Progress and Accomplishments
- The Council has met 27 times to review a variety of issues critical to ensuring that all of Maryland’s teachers have access to a wide array of high-quality professional development. During the course of these meetings and in other public forums that the Council has heard from well over 1,500 Maryland educators.
- Early in its work, the Council (1) provided extensive advice on the development of the Maryland Survey of Teacher Participation in High-Quality Professional Development, (2) reviewed several reports on professional development programs and policies at the state and local levels, (3) reviewed numerous studies of professional development, with special attention to the dimensions of high-quality professional development, (4) articulated teacher professional development standards for Maryland, and (5) received feedback on the standards from hundreds of educators who participated in 72 focus groups convened across the state.
- The Council has produced three reports to the State Superintendent of Schools.
These reports:
§ Introduced the draft standards and recommended a public engagement campaign to foster understanding and build consensus around the standards (December 2003)
§ Summarized key findings and conclusions from the Council’s comprehensive review of the professional development program and policies; presented the new Maryland Teacher Professional Development Standards; and offered recommendations for using the standards as the foundation of statewide system of high-quality professional development (December 2004)
§ Summarized early progress in implementing the 2004 report recommendations (January 2006)
Following initial transmission to Dr. Grasmick, Council reports were presented to the Maryland State Board of Education.
Next Steps
- In December 2006, Dr. Grasmick renewed her charge to the Council by calling on the group to:
- Continue to examine state and local efforts to use the Maryland Teacher Professional Development Standards to create a statewide system of high-quality professional development. Dr. Grasmick encouraged the Council to use the recommendations from the 2004 reports as a framework and to let us know how we are doing as we work to improve the quality of professional development for all teachers.
- Identify the challenges associated with implementing the standards.
- Prepare two Annual reports on progress in implementing the standards.
PDAC Meeting Summaries
- To respond to Dr. Grasmick’s 2006 charge, the Council will explore three issues:
§ The state of the art in evaluating teacher professional development
§ Finding time for teacher participation in high-quality professional development
§ College and University courses as professional development