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Learning for all is Maryland district’s priority
By Peter Carpenter
Categories: Career pathways, Coaching, Collaboration, Learning communities, System leadershipDecember 2023
When we think of professional learning, we usually mean growing educators’ knowledge base, abilities, and mindsets for the purpose of benefiting students. But Harford County Public Schools in Maryland has reframed it with a much broader scope. Professional learning is now called organizational development, reflecting the district’s aim for everyone in all positions and levels to learn, grow, strive, and be the best that they can be. To do this, we create learning opportunities for all staff. It’s been a process to reach the point where we are now, and even though we’ve made many strides in creating educational spaces for everyone, our work is not done. We are still creating learning opportunities where few existed before. The growth and development of all staff is
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Cross-departmental teams
Harford County Public Schools’ cross-departmental teams work to determine and support professional learning and growth needs across the whole system.
Administrator professional development advisory team: This team includes members from schools, central services, and the enterprise side, facilitated by the supervisor of leadership development. The team’s goals are to determine the needs for each level of leadership and project the proposed professional learning impact on each office. Designs for professional learning are brought to the team for feedback as are calendar items.
Teacher professional development advisory team: This group of instructional staff from across the system is facilitated by the supervisor of teacher induction and professional development. The team’s goal is to determine the instructional needs for each school level and assess the impact of proposed professional learning for teachers. This team also reviews designs for professional learning.
Clerical professional development advisory team: Facilitated by the director of organizational development, this team’s goal is to determine clerical professional learning needs and impact. New for our district, these offerings have been wildly popular. Typically, we provide virtual choice sessions twice a year.
Enterprise advisory team: The director of organizational development facilitates this team, which is a cross-section of enterprise staff. In its beginning stages, we are excited to see where our needs assessments will take this team. We are looking to equip our enterprise leadership with skills that will support succession planning and build leadership capabilities with our current staff.
References
Guidara, W. (2022). Unreasonable hospitality: The remarkable power of giving people more than they expect. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group.
Kegan, R. & Lahey, L.L. (2016). An everyone culture: Becoming a deliberately developmental organization. Harvard Business Review Press.
Kouzes, J.M. & Posner, B.Z. (2017). The leadership challenge (6th ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Senge, P.M. (2006). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. Broadway Business.
Peter Carpenter (peter.carpenter@hcps.org) is director, organizational development, and continuous learning at Harford County Public Schools.
Categories: Career pathways, Coaching, Collaboration, Learning communities, System leadership
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