Case Studies: Overview | Boston | Chicago | Cincinnati | Philadelphia
In 2001- 2002, Education Resource Strategies (ERS) helped Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Superintendent Arne Duncan and Chief Academic Officer Barbara Eason Watkins organize a more focused, measurable professional development system. The district formed a steering committee made up of a diverse range of constituencies to provide ERS with direction and feedback at all stages of the project. The project had four major goals:
- Inventory the alignment of dollars and professional development offerings to a set of professional development principles and district priorities
- Compare findings with other districts and best practices
- Articulate and implement a comprehensive district-wide professional development strategy that supports whole-school improvement goals
- Create a shared understanding of professional development principles, district priorities, and challenges
ERS' full report provides an overview of the analysis' findings, recommendations, and outcomes. This case study page is a synthesis of information made available in this report and on the ERS website.
Findings
To conduct the strategic review of spending, professional development was defined as "any and all resources aimed at improving the knowledge and skills of staff working in schools." Researchers examined both district and school level spending assisted by ten teams of retired principals and National Board Certified teachers - six conducted interviews with district staff and four with a sample of staff at 21 schools. Their findings, listed below, are explained in more detail on pages 8-14 of the full report:
- Chicago's Public Schools lack standards for instructional quality, which hinders efforts to target support, measure progress, and create accountability.
- Contractual, non-student time negotiated for teachers represents a large investment and opportunity as a percentage of total spending on professional development.
- Spending on individual teachers lacks a clear career development strategy and is not linked to an overall school improvement strategy.
- Spending on professional development for schools is not integrated into a comprehensive strategy for improving instruction.
- CPS functions without line accountability for implementing coherent school improvement programs and improving the quality of instruction.
- The results of school spending on professional development are unclear and highly variable.
Recommendations
ERS recommended that CPS articulate a strategy that defined the purpose of various professional development activities and prioritized those activities most aligned with principles of high-quality professional development. They offered the following recommendations (additional detail is provided on pages 14-15 of the full report:
- Develop and adopt measures of instructional quality.
- Support effective use of professional development days and institutes for school improvement and student and teacher learning.
- Organize district spending on individuals into a coherent strategy that supports career development. Focus on entry level staff and leadership to ensure that the program design supports whole-school improvement efforts.
- Create a system of line accountability and a high quality professional development program to implement coherent whole-school improvement plans.
- Track school-level spending and the quality of professional development offerings at schools.
ERS helped CPS strengthen its professional development program by:
- Identifying a total of nearly 70 million dollars of professional development funds
- Consolidating the professional development resources under one district leader
- Supporting a dramatic reorganization of teaching and learning, redirecting funding from previously scattered professional development efforts
- Establishing standards for professional development
- Creating rubrics for assessing district and school professional development efforts against these standards