Article Review 4- Staff Development Models
Hirsh, Stephanie (2003), Dollars and Sense, Journal of Staff Development (JSD), Vol 24, No. 3 http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/jsd/hirsh243.cfm
Summary: Stephanie Hirsh, the author and National Staff Development Council (NSDC) executive director, discusses the NSDC beliefs that high quality staff development is required in order to meet the increasing expectations and more challenging standards in education. To improve students learning the teachers must improve their teaching skills by gaining high quality staff development and pool resources with their peers. The Council recommends that school districts allocate at least 10% of their budget to staff development and have educator's allot at least 25% of their work time to learning and collaboration with colleagues. Reducing financial resources will ultimately have a negative long-term effect on student learning.
High-quality staff development includes the following:
- Outside consultants used to accomplish district priorities.
- District trainers who help instruct with internal expertise and long-term follow-up.
- School-based coaches to help with daily learning.
- Materials and supplies for continued study.
- Memberships in professional organizations supporting individual and team learning.
- Financial resources for travel, cost of registration, and substitute teaching time.
- Stipends for mentors and team leaders/trainers.
- Stipends for meeting district standards by demonstrating knowledge and accomplishing standards.
- Training and support for staff.
In addition to staff development providing time for teachers to accomplish the following is necessary:
- Daily learning with team members.
- Learning opportunities during staff development days
- Faculty meetings with school improvement as a priority.
- Committee meetings for accomplishing school improvement
Implications
This article implies school districts need to commit resources for staff development in order to improve academic performance of students, staff development is the most powerful tool for achieving high levels of performance. The NSDC recommends at least 10% of a school systems budget and 25% of educator's work time to be committed to learning through staff development and collaboration.
Reaction
I found the article interesting but somewhat unrealistic in the current fiscal times. Having educators commit 25 percent of their time to collaborating and learning sounds wonderful in theory, but not necessarily possible in real life. The other interesting point I noted was the article recommends at least 10% of a school budget to be devoted to staff development and our textbook states the U.S. Department of Education recommends at least 30% of the technology budget should be committed to supporting staff development. The only time both recommendations would be in agreement was if the technology budget was 33.3% of the total school budget, which may not always be the case. Staff development and collaborating is important, school systems need to consider the long-term effect of eliminating either resource.