Equity
The standard
The rationale
Annotated bibliography
The standard
Staff development that improves the learning of all students prepares educators to understand and appreciate all students, create safe, orderly, and supportive learning environments, and hold high expectations for their academic achievement.
The rationale
Effective educators know and demonstrate appreciation for all their students. Through their attitudes and behaviors, they establish classroom learning environments that are emotionally and physically safe and they communicate high expectations for academic achievement and quality interpersonal relationships. Professional development related to these issues is particularly important when educators are assigned to levels other than those for which they were prepared (for instance, elementary and high school teachers or administrators assigned to middle-grades schools) and when they are teaching students whose backgrounds are significantly different from their own (for instance, white, middle-class teachers working in schools that primarily serve students of color and/or those from low-income homes).
Teachers' knowledge of their students is an essential ingredient of successful teaching. Staff development helps teachers to understand the general cognitive and social/emotional characteristics of students in order to provide developmentally appropriate curriculum and instruction. It provides strategies for tapping the unique learning strengths of each student. In addition, it helps teachers to use knowledge of their students' interests and backgrounds to assist them in planning meaningful, relevant lessons.
For teachers to act on this knowledge of students, it is important that staff development equip them with ways of providing various types of instruction based on individual differences. Teachers learn to recognize learning strengths and preferences and how to differentiate learning activities within their classrooms. They also learn various ways to assess student progress based on individual differences.
Successful educators convey through various means the value and potential that is inherent in each student. They demonstrate understanding, respect, and appreciation of students' cultures and life experiences through their lessons and daily interaction with students and their caregivers. High quality staff development provides educators with opportunities to understand their own attitudes regarding race, social class, and culture and how their attitudes affect their teaching practices and expectations for student learning and behavior. In addition, teachers learn about the cultural backgrounds of their students and to develop an appreciation of the benefits that diversity provides in their classrooms for both students' academic performance and interpersonal and social development.
Staff development equips all educators with the knowledge and skills to establish safe and orderly learning environments characterized by mutual respect in which academic learning and psycho/social development will occur. It enables teachers to develop classroom management skills that support positive interaction and nurture students' capacity for self-management. It assists teachers and administrators in creating schoolwide practices that convey respect for students, their families, and their cultural backgrounds. Such practices may include school investigations, curriculum units, and other activities that recognize the contributions and traditions of various cultures. These practices also demonstrate sensitivity to caregivers and their students whose primary language is not English and whose work, home life, or cultural traditions makes it difficult for them to interact with the school and teachers in ways most comfortable and familiar to North American educators.
Annotated bibliography
NOTE: When resources in this list are available on the web, a link is provided. Many of these publications are available through the NSDC Bookstore.
Banks, J. (1993). Multicultural education: Development, dimensions, and challenges. Phi Delta Kappan, 75(1), 21-28.
Order through Phi Delta Kappa. Contact Terri Hampton at 800-766-1156
James Banks identifies some myths about multicultural education: (1) that it is only for African-Americans, Hispanics, the poor, women, and other victimized groups; (2) that it is opposed to the Western tradition; and (3) that it will divide the nation. He then discusses some of the progress made by multicultural education, using five dimensions to describe the field's major components: (1) content integration, (2) the knowledge construction process, (3) prejudice reduction, (4) an equity pedagogy, and (5) an empowering school culture and social structure.
Brophy, J. (1998). Classroom management as socializing students into clearly articulated roles. Journal of Classroom Interaction, 33(1), 1-4.
Order by writing to: Journal of Classroom Interaction; University of Houston, Room 452 FH; Houston, TX 77204-5874
Jerome Brophy provides a historical perspective of the classroom-management issues, noting that certain classroom-management principles are applicable to a range of possible instructional strategies. He concludes that management systems should support instructional systems, and student roles should be clearly articulated in the planning process for instruction. Brophy takes into account students' roles emphasized in social constructivist classrooms.
Calderon, M. (1997). Staff development in multilingual multicultural schools. New York: ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 410 368)
Read at http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed410368.html
The author presents recommendations for a staff development program that has been tested and shown to be effective for a multilingual, multicultural teaching staff. Effective instruction in bilingual and multicultural schools requires that teachers combine a sophisticated knowledge of subject matter with a wide repertoire of teaching strategies and state-of-the-art knowledge about learning theory, cognition, pedagogy, curriculum, technology, assessment, and programs that work. Researchers at the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At Risk have gained insight into ways of bringing instruction, cultural relevance, and equitable power relations into a staff development program.
Cawelti, G. (1999). Handbook of research on improving student achievement, Second edition. Arlington, VA: Educational Research Service. (ERIC Documentation Service No. ED 394 629)
Order from Educational Research Service's web site: http://www.ers.org
This handbook identifies classroom practices that research has shown to result in higher student achievement. The fundamental premise is that efforts to improve instruction must focus on the existing knowledge base about effective teaching and learning. Although most studies rely on traditional kinds of achievement testing, a broader definition of achievement is used here. Integrated approaches within disciplines are included if they are judged appropriate. Each chapter contains a reference list of 60 to 90 items.
Hilliard, A. (1997). The structure of valid staff development. Journal of Staff Development, 18(2), 28-34.
Read at http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/jsd/jsds97hill.cfm
Asa Hilliard argues for a revolution in the structure of staff development. He claims that current staff development is too preoccupied with questions of student capacity and student rankings and that staff development must change to incorporate the ideas of successful teachers who break with routines to try new strategies.
Jackson, A. & Davis, G. (2000). Turning points 2000: Educating adolescents in the 21st century. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Order from Teachers College Press's hotline: 800-575-6566
Anthony Jackson and Gayle Davis update the Carnegie Corporation's 1989 report to integrate what is known from education research and practice within a coherent approach toward adolescent education that educators can use to transform middle grade schools. Their report emphasizes that, in addition to structural changes in classrooms and schools, educators must also make substantial, far-reaching changes in curriculum, student assessment, and instruction in order to improve student learning.
Johnson, R. (1996). Setting our sights: Measuring equity in school change. Los Angeles, CA: The Achievement Council.
Order from The Achievement Council's web site: http://www.achievementcouncil.com
Ruth Johnson identifies six roles for data: (1) improving the quality of criteria used in problem solving and decision making; (2) describing institutional processes, practices, and progress in schools and districts; (3) examining institutional belief systems underlying assumptions and behaviors; (4) mobilizing the school community for action; (5) monitoring implementation of changes; and (6) accountability.
Kaufman, M. (1997). A professional development stance for equity. SSI Perspectives, 2(3), 4-5.
Read at http://www.terc.edu/handsonIssues/f96/equity.html
The author describes a professional development process that assists teachers in implementing successful instructional strategies by using equity as a framing tool for decision making. Teachers are able to improve the educational outcomes for all students by creating a framework around which to initiate change. Teachers learned to approach change using the following elements: (1) a stance of critique and inquiry; (2) data-driven decision making; (3) investigation of best practices, including instruction, curriculum, and materials; and (4) teacher leadership development. This framework is a means of eliminating the fragmentation that typically accompanies the implementation of reform.
Kelly, J. (1999). Free to teach, free to learn: A model of collaborative professional development that empowers teachers to reach diverse student populations. Journal of Negro Education, 68(3), 426-432.
Order from Journal of Negro Education's web site: http://www.howard.edu/schooleducation/Programs/JNE/index.htm
Judith Kelly points out that America's increasing diversity has put greater pressure on teachers and administrators to ensure that they have the knowledge and skills necessary to successfully educate students from a wide variety of racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. She argues that teachers continue to manifest racism and ethnic discrimination in the classroom, often unintentionally, and that a major change toward more appropriate professional development is essential for making America's teaching more culturally responsive and bridging the learning gap between black and white students.
Kolenko, C. & Schrup, M. (1992). Inservice education-staff development: CASE information dissemination packet. Bloomington, IN: CASE Research Committee, Indiana University.
Request from CASE Research Committee, 812-855-5090
This information packet is intended to provide special education administrators with information and materials regarding inservice education and staff development. The first section presents a research and development model based on Project TAMEC (Technical Assistance for Mainstreaming Exceptional Children). The second section presents seven "best practices" models, focusing on building-based programs and networking systems. The final section focuses on structuring staff development programs.
Research for Better Schools, Inc.: The Urban Education Project. The new vision of the urban learner: Four staff development modules. Philadelphia, PA: Research for Better Schools.
Order from http://www.rbs.org/catalog/pubs/ar23.shtml
This document provides an overview of the Urban Learner Framework (ULF), a decision-making framework that challenges generalizations of urban learners as deprived, underachieving, unmotivated, and at risk, and it presents instead a view of the urban learner as culturally diverse, capable, and resilient. This document also describes the four research-based themes which provide the ULF's foundation, and their ramifications for practice in the schools. The themes are: (1) cultural diversity and learning; (2) unrecognized ability and underdeveloped potential; (3) enhancing ability development through motivation and effort; and (4) resilience. Each theme is presented with a training guide and handouts.
Sparks, G. (1983). Synthesis of research on staff development for effective teaching. Educational Leadership, 41(3), 65-72.
Order from ASCD's web site: http://www.ascd.org.
Georgea Sparks briefly summarizes some of the research on appropriate content for staff development, as well as the appropriate context for staff development. The major focus of the article, however, is on the training process of staff development. Sparks combines some of the research on effective training activities to form a list: diagnosing and prescribing, giving information and demonstrating, discussing application, and coaching. Finally, she presents some of the research concerning the importance of designing staff development programs that are adapted to fit various teacher characteristics and attitudes.
Sparks, D. & Hirsh, S. (1997). A new vision for staff development. Alexandria, VA: ASCD and NSDC.
Order from the NSDC Bookstore.
Dennis Sparks and Stephanie Hirsh describe three powerful ideas altering the shape of schools and staff development: results-driven education, systems-thinking, and constructivism. Major shifts in staff development resulting from these three ideas include movement from individual development to individual and organizational development; from fragmented, piecemeal improvement efforts to staff development driven by a clear, coherent plan; from a focus on adult needs and satisfaction to a focus on student needs and learning outcomes; from training conducted away from the job to multiple forms of job-embedded learning; and from staff development as a "frill" to staff development as indispensable. Sparks and Hirsh elaborate on these shifts and provide examples from around the country.
Zemelman, S., Daniels, H., & Hyde, A. (1998). Best practice: New standards for teaching and learning in America's schools, Second edition. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Order from Heinemann's web site: http://www.heinemann.com
Steven Zemelman, Harvey Daniels, and Arthur Hyde encourage everyone involved in school reform to recognize, understand, appreciate, and start exploiting the remarkably coherent models for across-the-curriculum school reform that already have been built. They analyze a rich base of research and exemplary practice that points the way to school renewal through curriculum reform. They provide a compact and accurate summary of current "best practice" research in each of six teaching fields: reading, writing, mathematics, science, social studies, and fine arts. After describing each field's research base, they provide at least one example that shows how some teachers are implementing key content and processes in their classrooms.
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