[NIFL-AALPD:1792] From Tom, Any scientific evidence for professional development?

From: jataylor (jataylor@utk.edu)
Date: Fri Dec 10 2004 - 13:47:30 EST


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Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:1792] From Tom, Any scientific evidence for professional development?
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[The following inquiry is from Tom Sticht, please read on ~ Jackie]

On April 15, 2003, following a strand of messages about "evidence-based"
instruction and how AALPD members had gone about providing professional
development to encourage "evidence-based" teaching, I asked Jackie to
post a message for me in which I noted that I have been looking for
reports in which it has been demonstrated in a "scientific,
evidence-based" manner that adult literacy professional development has
produced actual improvements in some aspects of adult literacy education
somehwere.

For instance, has some one demonstrated with "hard" evidence that
professional development lead to more enrollments, or perhaps better
retention, or maybe greater learning, or increased gains on standardized
tests, more people reporting they reached personal goals, and so forth.

Some 20 months later I am still looking for some researcher, professional
developer, or other adult literacy expert who has documented in a
"scientific, evidence-based" manner that they have gone to an existing
adult literacy/ABE program somewhere and improved its functioning in some
way.

I have followed the various NIFL discussion lists for several years, I
have read numerous books and journal articles from national and state
literacy research and development centers, and I have tracked federal
government web sites. I still cannot find any reports in which the
researchers, professional developers, or other adult literacy experts
actually went to an existing program and made it better providing
scientifically acceptable evidence of their accomplishments.

Has any professional developer who has posted messages on the AALPD list,
or any researcher that reads the AALPD list accomplished any demonstrable
improvements in an existing program anywhere that they can share
information about?

Thanks for your help!

Tom Sticht
tsticht@aznet.net



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