Return-Path: <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id j0KF0mn23236; Thu, 20 Jan 2005 10:00:48 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 10:00:48 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <42055B90@webmail.utk.edu> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: jataylor <jataylor@utk.edu> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:1918] Policies and paid professional development X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Infinite Mobile Delivery (Hydra) SMTP v3.62.01 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Status: O Content-Length: 2295 Lines: 43 Colleagues: We'd like to know your perspectives regarding what policies might be that support paying teachers for professional development. After hearing from you, we'll then frame up a position statement about paid professional development, and then move on to another professional development/working condition issue. Question: Based on your experiences, what do you think about every state having a policy of funding and requiring programs to provide 2.5% of a teacher's annual paid hours as paid professional development release time? Background: The NCSALL Professional Development Study found that teachers who had more annual paid professional development release time attended the professional development activity for more hours, and those who attended for more hours demonstrated more change after having participated. Thus, this research at least suggests that paying practitioners for the time they spend in professional development is related to how much they learn and change as a result of that professional development. So, if we are to advocate for paid professional development release time, what's a fair and reasonable policy for doing that, given scarce resources in our field? One possible position is that every teacher in the field, no matter how part-time, should be compensated, at their regular working hour rate, for the time they spend in the professional development they attend. One way to do this would be to set a minimum percentage of time for funded professional development, say for example, 2.5% of paid hours. (For a full-time teacher working 40 hours a week for 40 weeks, this would be equivalent to 40 hours a year of paid professional development release time, or 5 full days. For a part-time teacher working 15 hours per week for 40 weeks, this would be 15 hours a year. Teachers who work less than 15 hours per week would also receive a minimum of 15 hours per year.) What do you think? Please post your comments, opinions, alternate proposals, etc., to this list over the next 9-10 days. Then we will synthesize what we have heard and develop a draft position statement about paid professional development release time. We look forward to hearing from you, Cristine Smith, Chair, AALPD Jackie Taylor, Vice-Chair, AALPD
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