<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">As a former training manager I know that some companies would insist on an exit test for employees. Lucent had exit tests. Employees had to demonstrate that they had "passed" the course. These examinations were not perfunctory. There is a body research that indicates that managers who monitor the specifics of the knowledge and skills that were trained get a bigger bang for their training buck. Both of these outcome measures are not the norm but they do occur. In the ed biz and adult ed biz we usually do neither. As a tenured full professor at the University of Nebrasksa , I have taught ed grad courses. Most ed grad degrees are long on theory and woefully short on practice. Biz training is short of theory and longer on practice. And Adult Ed professional development is...<div><br></div><div><br><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>Roger Berg</div><div>Strategic/Community Planner</div><div>Literacy Program of Greater Plymouth at the Plymouth Public Library</div><div>11 Hall Street</div><div>Plymouth, MA 02360</div><div>508 746 6345</div><div><a href="mailto:roger_berg@mac.com">roger_berg@mac.com</a></div><div><br></div><br></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br><div><div>On Dec 17, 2008, at 9:07 AM, Carol Jones wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="blue" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PostalCode"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="State"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="Street"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="address"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PersonName"><div class="Section1"><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy; ">Interesting discussion. In my experience, those instructors who seek to participate in professional development opportunities are those who are open to trying new teaching strategies and personal improvement. They are not frightened of admitting that there is always more to learn…which seems to be what we hope for in students too. Resistance to participation in training, on the other hand, is not often a sign of a strong instructor. Of course, just attending is not the important thing, but actually trying to find at least one thing to add to the bag of tricks is the key. I’m not sure that you can measure this formally, but I suspect that if you could review performance reviews of both groups, you’d find that those who openly participate in professional development are identified as better instructors across the board.<o:p></o:p></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy; "><o:p> </o:p></span></font></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center; margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><hr size="2" width="100%" align="center" tabindex="-1"></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><b><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: bold; ">From:</span></font></b><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma; "><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:assessment-bounces@nifl.gov" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">assessment-bounces@nifl.gov</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[<a href="mailto:assessment-bounces@nifl.gov" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">mailto:assessment-bounces@nifl.gov</a>]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b><span style="font-weight: bold; ">On Behalf Of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b>Roger Berg<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold; ">Sent:</span></b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Tuesday, December 16, 2008 12:08 PM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold; ">To:</span></b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:personname w:st="on">The Assessment Discussion List</st1:personname><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold; ">Cc:</span></b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Roger Berg<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold; ">Subject:</span></b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[Assessment 1535] Re: Getting staff to use data</span></font><o:p></o:p></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><o:p> </o:p></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; ">There appears to be the assumption that participating in professional development improves instruction. I would not be surprised to find an small positive effect but could it be that the 'better" instructors attend PD while the others.....<o:p></o:p></span></font></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><o:p> </o:p></span></font></div></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><o:p> </o:p></span></font></div></div><div><div apple-content-edited="true"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; ">Roger Berg<o:p></o:p></span></font></div></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; ">Strategic/Community Planner<o:p></o:p></span></font></div></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; ">Literacy Program of Greater<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on">Plymouth</st1:city><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>at the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Plymouth</st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Public Library<o:p></o:p></span></font></div></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; ">11 Hall Street</span></font></st1:address></st1:street><o:p></o:p></div></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; ">Plymouth</span></font></st1:city>,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:state w:st="on">MA</st1:state><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:postalcode w:st="on">02360</st1:postalcode></st1:place><o:p></o:p></div></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; ">508 746 6345<o:p></o:p></span></font></div></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><a href="mailto:roger_berg@mac.com" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">roger_berg@mac.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>-------------------------------<br>National Institute for Literacy<br>Assessment mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Assessment@nifl.gov" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">Assessment@nifl.gov</a><br>To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/assessment" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/assessment</a><br>Email delivered to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:nqr@mac.com" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">nqr@mac.com</a><br></o:smarttagtype></o:smarttagtype></o:smarttagtype></o:smarttagtype></o:smarttagtype></o:smarttagtype></o:smarttagtype></div></span></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>