Assessing Impact: Evaluating Staff Development (2nd Ed.)

Joellen Killion, 2008

Comprehensive in scope, this accessible resource guides teams through a step-by-step process for planning and conducting effective evaluations of professional development programs. Learning Forward Senior Advisor Joellen Killion uses practical language to show educators how to evaluate professional development programs beyond the surface level, looking critically and analytically at their work to discover what is effective and what is not in order to refine their work, strengthen the benefits of staff training for participants, and improve overall student achievement.

Available in the Learning Forward Bookstore,
https://store.learningforward.org
or 800-727-7288.

Teacher Professional Development Evaluation Guide

M. Bruce Haslam, January 2010

This guide offers succinct recommendations for more frequent and more rigorous evaluation of teacher professional development to improve both the quality of professional learning and its results. Developed originally under contracts with Harford County Public Schools and the Maryland State Department of Education, this report assists schools and districts to evaluate the impact of teacher professional development on teaching practice and student learning. Learning Forward supported modifications to the resource guide to make it useful for schools and districts in all states and beyond.

Available to download free at www.learningforward.org/docs/pdf/evaluationguide.pdf.

5 Questions to Inform Evaluation Planning

These five questions cover the various factors planners need to consider in designing an evaluation. Because the answers to these questions will define the basic parameters of the evaluation, the evaluation team should come to consensus about them before moving forward.

Failing to address these questions in advance invariably results in superficial and incomplete data collection and analyses and missed opportunities to identify ways to make improvements and learn about the payoffs of teacher professional development.

Similarly, retrofitting an evaluation plan and data collection on professional development that is well underway, or even complete, limits data collection opportunities and generally makes it difficult to tailor the evaluation to the professional development in meaningful ways.

1. Should the activity be evaluated?

2. What are the key elements of the professional development that will be evaluated, and what assumptions hold these elements together?

3. Who is likely to be interested in the evaluation, and what do they want to know about the professional development?

4. What resources are available to support the evaluation?

5. Who will work on the evaluation?

Source: Haslam, M.B. (2010, January). Teacher professional development evaluation guide. Oxford, OH: NSDC & Maryland State Department of Education.