Tips for using the standards in schools
By Stephanie Hirsh
RESULTS - May 1998
The question I most often hear these
days is "how are schools using the standards?'' Using the Three I
organizer (see last month's column), let's review strategies for initiating
and implementing standards-driven staff development.
Initiation: What strategies would create awareness
and understanding of the standards?
- Build faculty expertise. Ask each staff member to become
expert on one standard and talk about it at a faculty meeting.
- Lead faculty study sessions. Which questions in the NSDC
study guide on the standards are most pertinent to your school? Facilitate
20- to 30-minute discussions on each question. Have groups post answers
to this question: What are the implications from your discussion for school
improvement work?
- Collect suggestions during the year. Prioritize necessary
changes at year's end. Or categorize recommendations
into three categories:
- NIKE - Just Do It!
- Form a study committee to recommend how to fit it into
the school improvement plan
- Not appropriate for consideration at this time.
- Build resource files. Create resource files so faculty
members can share or retrieve relevant articles on each standard.
- Do an overview of the standards. Show the Video Journal's
"Results-Based Staff Development'' program. Use the study guide's
discussion questions to introduce staff members to the concept of standards-driven
professional development.
- Conduct a staff development assessment. Give the standards
assessment in the study guide. Lead a discussion on the results. Where
are the staff development strengths and weaknesses in the school? What
can be used to help achieve the school improvement targets? What is acting
as a barrier and needs attention?
- Choose three standards (three strengths; three weaknesses)
to focus on during staff development planning and implementation.
Implementation: What strategies would help implement
the standards? The NSDC standards were designed to be implemented simultaneously
(not sequentially) to ensure staff development results in improved staff
and student learning. That means implementation poses a real challenge.
- Create standards-based staff development critical questions.
Form a task force to write standards-based questions to be asked whenever
a staff development initiative is presented to the school improvement or
districtwide planning council. Align the questions to the standards. How
does this initiative support a norm of continuous improvement? (Context:
Continuous Improvement) What research supports our desired outcomes? (Process:
Selecting Staff Development Content)
- Design a staff development planning framework. Prepare
a staff development planning document that addresses the finer points of
standards that apply to your school or school system. Include questions
on context, process, and content.
- Adopt the Three I Organizer and align staff development
with it. Consider which standards fit in each phase so they are reviewed
at appropriate times in the change cycle. (If the school has another improvement
organizer, align the standards with that organizer.)
- Audit your staff development offerings. Create benchmarks
for standards-driven staff development. Organize a team to audit your current
staff development against your benchmarks.
- Align staff development with the standards. Anything
published in connection with staff development should indicate how it relates
to the standards.
Obviously, this is just a start. To make the suggestions
stronger, I'd appreciate hearing from you about what your district is doing
to implement standards-based staff development. We plan to revise the NSDC
standards in 2000 and your comments, feedback, and additional research
will contribute to it. I look forward to hearing from you.
