Meeting Goals

• School professional development focuses on student learning. Educators and administrators determine whether they are meeting their goals by examining how they measure student success. For example, educators can measure student success by standardized testing. Some aspects of student education cannot be assessed, such as improvements in a student’s confidence. Educators must know what student success looks like so they know if they are reaching their goals. Formal and informal surveys by students, staff, parents and community members combine to determine whether teachers are meeting their goals in addition to standardized testing.
  
  

Resources

• The administrators must consider the resources the teachers need to continue professional development. For example, when teachers need to read about innovative research on teaching methods, the administrators must make sure the teachers have access to the latest academic journals. Administrators then consider whether there are budgetary constraints preventing the school from providing these resources.
  
  

Analyzing Staff Needs

• Specialists review data collected from the school and use it to determine the specific needs of the school and the educators. After analyzing the data, administrators develop specific goals for the educators to achieve. For example, when a teacher in a specific classroom is having a hard time raising the standardized test scores of the students, the specialists can help the teacher develop new formative assessment skills that allow them to provide effective feedback to the students, to help them improve their skills and raise their test scores.
  
  

Ongoing Training

• Modern staff development requires ongoing training. Teachers are given regular feedback, support and follow-ups. Since professional development is continual, new professional development plans must be incorporated into day-to-day school life in a way that does not interfere with the daily concerns of the school. Administrators can set up study groups that give teachers opportunities to work together to develop new teaching strategies. Teachers receive feedback from their colleagues and also provide support.
  
  

Reflection

• Link professional development to the specific concerns held by the school. When new educational theories are implemented in an education system, teachers must reflect on the challenges they will need to overcome when seeking to implement new theories.