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Leaders have key role in promoting staff development

By Joellen Killion
RESULTS - October 1998

Principals, central office staff, and others who influence policy and decision makers must become advocates for quality staff development. They must understand the links between staff development, increasing student achievement, and the NSDC Standards for Staff Development.

Being a staff development leader means talking with those who influence policy and decisions about the value of professional learning and helping make decisions that will ensure opportunities for staff members to extend their knowledge and skills.

Leaders can prepare themselves for this important role by collecting testimonies and stories about beneficial staff development and becoming familiar with the emerging research in the field.

The recent study by Georgia's Council for School Performance (Results, Sept. 1998) emphasizes the key role of principals' and central office leaders in staff development. The study analyzed differences in staff development policies, practices, and decisions between higher- and lower-achieving schools.

In higher-achieving schools, principals were more active leaders of staff development. Teachers in higher-achieving schools said strong leadership and school direction motivated them to participate in staff development.

More than their counterparts in lower-achieving schools, principals in higher-achieving schools focused staff development on school goals, identified resources, shared opportunities, and assessed their staff's needs for staff development.

Central office personnel of higher-achieving schools provided clear direction for staff development, full-time coordinators, district opportunities as well as extensive school-site staff development, and advisory committees to guide decisions about staff development funding and programming. These districts use collaborative decision making more often when they make decisions regarding staff development. Staff development coordinators in these districts not only have extensive experience and background in staff development and curriculum, but they also are active in professional associations.

The Georgia study suggests strong leadership is more than words. Through actions, leaders demonstrate their beliefs. They can do this by:

• Sharing responsibility for staff development decisions;
  
• Participating in the staff s learning experiences and discussing with them what they are learning;
  
• Finding resources and time for staff development;
  
• Evaluating the impact of teacher learning;
  
• Working cooperatively to develop school, district, and state policies that ensure that all staff have opportunities for continuous learning;
  
• Encouraging staff members to extend their content knowledge and content-specific pedagogy;
  
• Joining in staff development budget decisions;
  
• Making decisions based on NSDC s Standards for Staff Development; and
  
• Encouraging public support of teacher learning.

Being a staff development leader requires visible and continuous support of ongoing learning and improvement by all who influence a child's education. As we learn more about how learning occurs, implement new content standards, apply new assessment strategies, and work with changing students, continuous improvement of all educational personnel is essential.

Effective staff development requires strong leadership in order to obtain continuing support and to motivate all staff, school board members, parents, and the community to be advocates for continuous improvement.