In Pentucket we understand that adults are lifelong learners as well and at its core, the school system is a teaching and learning organization for all members - not just its students. As we design professional learning opportunities and provide growth options for staff, we must consider the most effective ways that adults learn and be sure to structure our professional development in accordance with what research indicates about adult learning. As Aguilar and Cohen describe in their newly released book “The PD Book” (2022), transformative PD becomes a reality when the organization or school is committed to being a learning organization and that is seen in the adult culture and goals where everyone is expected to learn.
A supportive community of collaborative learning is a key aspect of educators engaging in professional development. Like students, teachers need knowledge about content but also about “how” to best deliver that content - often referred to as pedagogy. Teachers also need to learn about the various needs of the students they have so that they can most effectively design learning experiences to reach all of their students. This requires us to organize curriculum across grade levels and subjects and that too is best done in a collaborative environment. In a 2015 study by Ronfeldt et al., it was found that when teachers and schools engage in high-quality collaboration, it leads to better achievement gains in math and reading for students. The study further elaborated that teachers improve at greater rates as well when they work in schools with better collaboration quality.
A phrase that is often used with educator professional development is “Job embedded PD”, which simply means that the professional development is clearly connected to the work they do in the classroom and the supports for carrying over the professional development exist in a structure of coaching, observations, professional collaboration, etc., for the teachers to implement changes in the classroom as part of their job.
While some PD that teachers engage in may initially be part of building background knowledge and may not be something that can immediately carry over to job embedded supports, we know from research that the one time PD event does have anywhere near the impact on educator performance as job embedded PD does. Workshops lasting 14 hours or less show no statistically significant effect on student learning (Darling-Hammond, Wei, Andree, Richardson, and Orphanos, 2009).
We also know that not every educator needs the same type of content for professional learning. Even when there may be a new initiative that all staff may need training on, the carry over and job embedded aspect of the training is where we can effectively differentiate professional learning as well. In Pentucket we have taken a few approaches to this. Beyond individual or team coaching, one way is to use a menu of options with varying formats for learning, which essentially is modeling Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approaches for varying needs of staff.
We are also proud of our ongoing partnership with our neighbors, the Newburyport Public Schools and Triton Regional School District. By working with two other area districts, we were able to take advantage of the relative in-house expertise and focus points from other districts, while offering our own to them, and effectively expand the “menu” of options. We had fifty PRSD staff take part in these partnership activities over the summer of 2022, engaging in work such as book studies (Culturally Responsive Teaching for Multilingual Learners, Grading for Equity,) and Trauma Informed Instruction.
At the elementary level, our professional development foci this summer continued the work we’ve done the past few years in engaging with evidence-based literacy instruction. Over twenty K-3 teachers from Pentucket, Newburyport and Triton, including reading interventionists and special educators, participated in a two day “Structured Literacy and the Science of Reading” PD run by literacy coordinator Jen Hogan. Grounded in research, teachers learned about how the brain learns to read and what practical instructional practices they can bring into their classrooms to ensure that all students can learn to read. Teachers are still engaged with one another via a Google Classroom to continue their learning and access resources as the year goes forward. Elementary teachers also participated in professional development centered around restructuring their classroom libraries into conceptually related topics. This approach, based on guidance such as this from Achieve the Core, gave teachers the knowledge and time to build useful classroom libraries based on the Wit & Wisdom, science, and social studies curricula that research shows will promote vocabulary and knowledge, while allowing all students to access higher level texts with high levels of comprehension.
Images from re-organized classroom libraries to build a volume of conceptually related texts - for knowledge building
In addition to this “in-house” PD, many teachers from across the district participated in other PD opportunities. We brought in the trainers from Great Minds to host a Geodes institute, where K-2 teachers and administrators from as far away as York, ME came in to learn about how to use the knowledge building decodable texts in their early childhood classrooms. Later, Great Minds was back to work with all K-6 staff on professional development centered around writing instruction. Other teachers capitalized on the opportunities such as those provided by Mass Literacy Open Access Professional Learning (OAPL) and participated in trainings such as Orton-Gillingham.
Teachers in Pentucket had the opportunity to join two book studies this summer led by our curriculum coordinators: The Reading Comprehension Blueprint and Grading for Equity. The Reading Comprehension Blueprint by Nancy Hennessy was the focus of the elementary work with the Early Grades Literacy Grant. Its foundation in evidence-based reading comprehension instruction and clear connection to knowledge-building curricula, such as Wit & Wisdom, made it the perfect text to bring fifteen other staff members into the work over the summer.
This school year, Pentucket Regional Middle/High School adopted a new grading policy, created by teachers, that focuses on continuous student learning and student mastery of skills/content. Three important revisions occur in the new policy related to grading descriptors, continuous learning/late work, and homework. These changes developed as a result of a year-long professional development book study from Joe Feldman’s, Grading for Equity, during the 2021-2022 school year and an extension group. During the summer, educators had an additional opportunity to participate in the book study, Grading for Equity, facilitated by Pentucket High School history teacher, Mark Dziedziak and Curriculum Coordinator Robin Doherty, to prepare for the grading changes. Professional development will continue through the school year as teachers reflect, discuss, and adapt to the grading policy.
As previously mentioned in our June Pentucket Teaching & Learning Blog, Pentucket began a three year partnership with Mass Insight, an organization that partners with Massachusetts schools to create equitable advanced placement (AP) learning opportunities for students. The partnership specifically focuses on enhancing student engagement and rigor in AP ELA and STEM classes and provides robust professional development for AP ELA and STEM teachers. Pentucket had 9 educators attend Mass Insight’s summer institute at Bridgewater State University, where they received training from current AP teachers nationwide, with a focus on developing lesson plans, enhancing instructional strategies connected to best teaching practices, and assessing student work. Kelly Chory, Math Department Chair, attended her first AP professional development over the summer. She expressed,
“It was such a benefit of collaborating with other teachers nationwide and it was great to learn different strategies to better help students be ready for the AP exam.”
More professional development opportunities for AP ELA and STEM teachers will be provided for in October through the grant with Mass Insight.
Within the district, there was a great deal of summer collaborative work done focusing on curriculum development at the secondary level. Much work was done on curriculum documents to better articulate the vertical and horizontal curriculum and provide a clear structure for expectations of what is to be taught. This was preceded with professional development on how a curriculum map is developed, using the backwards by design approach. This too is a form of job embedded PD, as teachers consider the implications of lesson and unit design and then work collaboratively to apply it to the content of their classes so we have clear and consistent instruction across grade levels and classes, followed up with classroom coaching and ongoing dialogue during the year about the work they did and what impact it is having on student outcomes. At the secondary level, Pentucket teachers from all content areas and grade levels participated in curriculum mapping professional development, facilitated by Curriculum Coordinator, Dr. Robin Doherty. Throughout the summer, teachers collaborated together on these curriculum maps developing rubrics, common assessments, essential questions, skills and identifying priority standards at each grade level. During the school year, educators will reflect and revise their maps based on the needs of students.
During the 2021-2022 Pentucket science teachers throughout the district participated in a Science & Technology Curriculum review the following objectives: create scope and sequence at each grade level, identify high quality curriculum materials, identify and create a professional development plan, ensure curriculum is culturally responsive, gather feedback from all stakeholders, and create a science vision K-12. To create vertical and horizontal alignment throughout the district, elementary teachers, over the summer, participated in professional development conducted by Science department chair Pam Endyke and biology teacher, Lisa Ward. The training focused on grades 3-5 science standards using a phenomena based approach. During the professional development, elementary teachers also had the opportunity to explore Mystery Science, a high quality instructional material that will serve as a foundational science resource for all elementary science teachers. This initial PD for science instruction has ongoing sessions and connections during the year that relate to the platform and tools themselves, but also broader understanding of science instruction and learning.
As a district, our focus on learning is not just for the students and we take steps to design learning for teachers that is meaningful, and timely but also focused on creating more opportunities for students and improved outcomes. As a learning organization our focus on the growth of our educators is directly connected to the student centered work of the district.
Brent Conway
Assistant Superintendent
Jen Hogan
K-6 Literacy and Humanities Coach/Coordinator
Dr. Robin Doherty
7-12 Curriculum Coach/Coordinator