Raising the Bar on Professional Development

This post originally appeared on my Education Week Blog

For a number of years, my school district (Burlington Public Schools) has started the year with three days of professional development structured in a conference format which we call BPSCon.  It has definitely been an iterative process as we have taken the feedback of staff members each year to try to strike a balance between mandatory sessions and choice options. In addition, we have worked hard to try to ensure that there are relevant offerings for specialists and teachers at all grade levels.

Not surprisingly, the thing that has made the biggest impact for us in providing more meaningful sessions for staff members has been putting structures in place that allow staff members to have a more active voice in developing the schedule. Two years ago, Burlington joined the District Capacity Project (DCP), a joint venture between labor and management that supported our district in setting up a committee comprised of educators from across our district and administrators to meet monthly to plan meaningful Professional Development.

One of the reasons this process has worked so well is that it never ends. Our District Capacity Project team will meet in September to review our staff survey from the BPSCon that took place this past week and begin to plan for next year's conference. In addition, feedback from teachers also allows us to expand some of our PD offerings for the upcoming school year as they respond to the following questions:

• Are there sessions that you were not able to attend that you would like to see offered during the school year?
• Are there sessions that you did attend that you would like to see additional Professional Development time dedicated to during the school year?

Based on the responses of our teachers, we will be able to offer after-school sessions or online sessions in the evening that will allow them to pursue additional PD credits in areas in which they are most interested.

The DCP work in Burlington has created a process in which teacher voice truly shapes Professional Learning opportunities. Staff members recommend colleagues to lead sessions who have experience in a variety of areas. In addition, staff members submit names of presenters from positive PD experiences they have had outside of school.   A few of the sessions that received the most positive feedback at this year's BPSCon came because of these recommendations by staff.  Sessions like Religions in Burlington (members of the Burlington Interfaith Clergy are pictured below), Safe Schools Program for LGBTQ Students, and Mindfulness came directly from staff recommendations of outside presenters.

While our work on providing meaningful PD options for all staff members is far from over, creating a process where educators have an authentic voice in the process has allowed for much greater diversity in our offerings and far greater satisfaction levels for our lead learners (teachers).

BPSCON Gets Positive Reviews from Burlington Teachers

Superintendent of Schools Eric Conti, addresses staff during the opening session of BPSCON

Before we welcomed students back for the 2015-2016 school year this week, over 400 Burlington educators were busy taking part in our annual Burlington Public Schools Professional Development Conference called BPSCON. While BPSCON has become a regular occurrence for Burlington educators, this year’s conference received the most positive feedback we have had surrounding our opening Professional Development (PD) days.  The collaborative efforts of the Burlington Educators’ Association and the Burlington Public Schools’ Central Administration made this year’s BPSCON much more of a joint endeavor than it has been previously.

This renewed collaborative journey surrounding PD in Burlington began at the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year when our district agreed to be part of the District Capacity Project, a partnership between the Massachusetts Department of Education, the Massachusetts Teachers’ Association, and the Rennie Center.  The District Capacity Project provided our district with both a framework and support to help guide our monthly professional development meetings with our team of teachers, administrators, and an outside facilitator.

After surveying teachers during the year and hearing that staff members were seeking a greater voice in creating their PD offerings, we put out the call for our talented teachers to propose sessions to lead for their colleagues.  Thankfully our BPS faculty members stepped up in a big way, proposing over 40 sessions for our opening conference.  

Here is what a few of the new Burlington Public Schools staff members had to say about their first three days in Burlington:

“I enjoyed the flexibility of designing my own schedule.  There was great variety and options to choose from and I thought the length of the sessions was just right.” (Jeff Pera, joins Burlington Public Schools from Natick Public Schools)

“BPSCon was the best beginning of the school year teacher workshop days I've ever experienced. “ (Dr. Conti’s) opening remarks were impactful, yet hilarious. I had tears of laughter which was a new and wonderful experience for me  during a superintendent's first day back speech. BPSCon was exactly what I needed as a first-year teacher in Burlington .Having BPS educators present is brilliant and empowering. All who presented are the best experts in our field; why pay outsiders to come in? All school districts should follow this innovative model.  (Rachel Small, joins Burlington from Manchester (NH) Public Schools)

With the positive feedback from this year’s BPSCON, the BPS staff members involved with planning Professional Development through the DIstrict Capacity Project are excited to find opportunities to continue offering staff timely and engaging PD opportunities throughout the school year. Special thanks to the following BPS staff member for their hard work on this initiative: Diana Marcus (Burlington Educators’ Association President), Michael Coughlin, Rachel Gould, Carolyn Crowley, Sean Musselman and Deb Dressler. These educators, central office administration and school committee representative, Kristen Russo, have already developed a schedule to continue work on this initiative during the 2015/2016 school year.