Professional Teacher Standards and Professional Development Plans

Video Transcription

In this tutorial, we'll review some of the most useful professional teacher standards that you might consider as you develop your professional development activities and plans. One additional set of standards that you might consider, but that we are not going to be reviewing in this tutorial, is the ISLLC Leadership Standards.

Using any of these sets of standards not only provides for plan alignment, but even more importantly, it provides us with a vehicle that we can use not only to measure the effectiveness of our professional development, but also to measure whether teachers are acquiring the associated competencies. After we review these standards, we'll then look at an example of possible application. Let's get started.

As we review each of these sets of standards, keep in mind that professional development helps to build capacity and to ensure the sustainability of district- and school-wide initiatives and continuous improvement efforts. Professional teacher standards can help us to narrow our focus as we are developing our professional development plans and activities. Professional teacher standards can also help us as we set expectations for the teacher skills and teacher quality that are going to be components of our professional development.

In fact, most teacher evaluation models use professional teacher standards as the basis for their rubrics. So we can use these rubrics from the teacher evaluation models that are in place all across the nation as competency-based metrics for evaluating our progress towards meeting our professional development goals.

The InTASC Model Core Teacher Standards were published in 2011. These standards outline expectations for professional practice as required for teacher evaluation by No Child Left Behind and by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Both the Danielson Framework and the Marzano Teacher Evaluation Model used these standards as the basis for their domains and their rubrics. The InTASC Model Core Teacher Standards are also used as the basis for many state professional teaching standards.

The standards consist of 10 different standards across four domains. As we review these and other standards in this tutorial, feel free to pause the video at any time to read through the individual standards.

The first domain of the InTASC Model Core Teacher Standards is the Learner & Learning. The second domain is Content Knowledge. The third domain is Instructional Practice. And the fourth domain is Professional Responsibility.

Teachers can pursue certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching. The National Board adheres to their own unique set of teaching standards. But these standards are similar to the InTASC standards and to many state standards.

There are 25 different certification areas, all with their own sets of standards. But there are five core propositions that are common to all 25 these areas.

Even though some may refer to it as the "Danielson Teacher Evaluation Model," the Danielson Framework is not intended to be a standalone teacher evaluation model. The purpose of the Framework is to inspire professional dialogue on the topic of our professional practices with the intent of improving our teaching and learning. The framework also aims to guide the processes of professional development and coaching and mentoring and teacher evaluation.

The Danielson Framework contains four domains. Domain 1 is Planning & Preparation. Domain 2 is Classroom Environment. Domain 3 is Instruction. And Domain 4 is Professional Responsibilities.

Marzano's Teacher Evaluation Model intends to support and improve both teacher effectiveness and student learning and achievement. Marzano's Model consists of 60 elements organized into four domains, each of which is centered around an essential design principle.

Marzano's rubrics are unique because they consider both student evidence and teacher evidence for every element. The majority of the elements are in Domain 1, Classroom Strategies & Behaviors. This makes sense because there are many different observable strategies and behaviors that are easily identifiable in a teacher observation situation. The elements in Domain 1 are connected to three major areas listed here.

There are eight elements divided into three areas in Domain 2. The five elements in Domain 3 are divided into just two areas. And the six elements in Domain 4 are connected to three different areas.

Because there are benefits to teacher training focused on technology integration in the classroom, the I-S-T-E or ISTE standards are another set of professional teacher standards that can help us to develop professional development plans for technology-rich environments. They can also provide us with a framework for providing feedback or coaching in technology integration.

There are ISTE standards for all different groups of people in the world of education. But we are going to focus on the ISTE standards for teachers.

So let's put this all together by seeing how we might apply some of these professional teacher standards to the development of a professional development planning goal. Let's say that a school or district would like teachers to be able to use classroom technology to help students collaborate with their peers and to demonstrate their understanding of skills and concepts through the use of creative and collaborative efforts.

For example, the school or district might wish that teachers create collaborative projects in which students can demonstrate and exercise their creativity as they work together to produce an end product that, again, demonstrates their understanding of the content.

InTASC's standard number 3, Learning Environments, can support the development of this professional development planning goal. For example, the professional development plan for the school or district might include training that would support teachers establishing learning environments that integrate collaborative technology, including software and apps to foster students collaborative efforts.

After receiving this training, teachers can implement this skill. This is something that is observable and consequently easily monitored or tracked so that the school or district can keep track of whether teachers are mastering the objectives or the skills that are outlined for this competency.

Element 1d from the Danielson Framework can also support this effort, Demonstrating Knowledge of Resources. The professional development plan might ask for teachers to demonstrate appropriate and effective use of collaborative technology for their students. Again, this is something that teachers can receive training on. And then this is a concrete skill that is observable.

The third proposition from the National Board also might help here. This proposition states that teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning.

So the district can provide teachers with training in outlining check-in points and providing rubrics for these collaborative projects so that both teachers and students can monitor the progress towards the completion of the projects and ultimately towards demonstration of mastery and understanding. And finally, ISTE Standard number two for Teachers, Promoting & Modeling Digital Citizenship & Responsibility, is also applicable here.

Teachers can be expected to select student work exemplars that will be posted on the district website. Furthermore, students and teachers and the technology staff can all work together in order to ensure that student work is shared online in both a responsible and an appropriate manner.

So we can see how each of these individual professional teacher standards can be applied to the situation and then written as an observable, measurable competency that will help us to track whether teachers are mastering the individual standards, and ultimately measure whether our professional development is really effective. Are the activities that we are designing really helping to support teachers as they make progress towards meeting the overall professional development goals?

So having reviewed all of these various sets of professional teacher standards and having seen an example now, so you have a better idea of how this might apply, consider one of your current professional development planning goals. Think of a goal that is in place for all of the teachers in your building or district. How might alignment to some of these professional teaching standards make the school more applicable and more approachable for the teachers in your building or district?

As you reflect on how this new information can be applied, you may want to explore the additional resources section that accompanies this video presentation. This is where you'll find links to resources chosen to help you deepen your learning and explore ways to apply your newly acquired skill set. Thank you for joining me today. Have a great day.