Colleagues:
The PD Policy Recommendations have been finalized, and I've pasted them in at 
the end of this email. Thank you for your thoughtful feedback, comments, and 
suggested revisions over these last several months regarding the draft PD 
Policy Platform and PD Policy Matrix.

Beginning with a 2004 NIFL-AALPD discussion of the NCSALL research, "How 
Teachers Change" and subsequent discussions, these policies took shape and 
have since undergone several changes. Some of the revisions subscribers 
offered (particularly those that described _how_ the policy might be 
implemented) were included in the PD Policy Matrix, which lists the policy, 
the rationale (from research and from The National Literacy Summit 2000 Action 
Agenda), and examples from practice: 
http://www.aalpd.org/documents/PDPolicyMatrix101205.doc

We have taken this final set of PD Policy recommendations (below) to the AALPD 
membership, asking them to indicate their support in time for AALPD to promote 
the policies at next week's state directors' meeting in Denver, Colorado.

For more information about how the policies were developed and next steps, 
visit: http://www.aalpd.org/advocacy.htm
For the final version of the PD Policies, _see below_.

Best,
Jackie Taylor, List Moderator, AALPD, jataylor at utk.edu
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Professional Development Policy Recommendations

GOAL:
The adoption of policies at national, state and local levels that adequately 
support the participation of adult basic education, adult ESOL, and adult 
secondary education practitioners (including paraprofessionals and learner 
leaders who are staff members) in professional development that will help them 
be effective teachers, tutors, counselors, and administrators. These policies 
offer recommendations for the minimum necessary to support practitioners in 
getting the professional development they need to do their jobs well.

POLICIES:
1. Orientation/Induction for Teachers New to Adult Education: All teachers new 
to adult education should have an orientation to teaching in the field of 
adult basic education within at least the first six months of their teaching.


2. Expectations for Participation in Professional Development: Every state and 
program should expect that all practitioners, no matter how experienced, will 
continue professional learning throughout their careers. Teachers should have 
access to up-to-date knowledge of research and teaching methods in the content 
areas they are required to teach (e.g. ABE reading, ESOL reading math) as well 
as general methods of adult teaching and learning.


3. Professional Development Plans: Each program should be funded a minimum of 
0.5% (up to 8 hours) of its annual staff hours to support teachers in 
developing an annual professional development plan that begins with a 
practitioner needs assessment and dovetails with its program improvement 
process. All teachers should have PD plans, and programs should be monitored 
to see that these are real and meaningful to teachers and to the program.


4. Paid Professional Development Release Time: Each program should be funded 
such that all practitioners receive a minimum of 2.5% of their annual working 
time as paid professional development(1). Paid professional development 
includes any professional learning activity (group or individual) that 
advances practitioners towards achieving the goals outlined in their 
professional development plans.


5. Participation in Program Improvement: Each program should be funded a 
minimum of 2% of its annual staff hours for teachers to participate and take 
leadership in program improvement. Teachers should be encouraged to 
collectively review standardized test data and classroom or program-based 
assessment data for program improvement purposes and participate in other 
program improvement activities such as informing program policies, designing a 
new curriculum or assessments (not just lesson planning), improving 
recruiting, or designing a new student orientation.


6. Participation in the Field of Adult Education: All full-time practitioners 
should be funded for at least 1% of their annual working time to participate 
in activities as a member of the field (ultimately to improve the quality of 
programs and services), including:

- providing professional development to other teachers inside or outside of 
the program,
- working towards addressing students' needs (transportation, child care, 
health services, job assistance, etc.) that may prevent students from 
participating in the program,
- building community partnerships (with the health care system, K-12 system, 
libraries, local businesses, career centers, etc.) to improve services to 
adult learners, and
- informing state adult education policies and state initiatives.


7. Teachers' Working Conditions: In addition to paid professional development 
time, programs should have sufficient resources to provide working conditions 
that will allow teachers to stay in the field, find the work satisfying, and 
grow professionally, including:

- Adequate teacher salaries(2)
- benefits for all teachers (including part-time),
- access to full-time employment,
- paid prep time for all teachers (including part-time),
- paid access for all teachers to at least one hour a week of professional 
sharing time with either colleagues or a coordinator who supports their 
teaching, and
- at least monthly mechanisms (staff meetings, meetings with director) for 
voicing their ideas and participating in decisions about the program.


8. Tuition Reimbursement: Programs should be funded to provide tuition 
reimbursement at the equivalent of one college course per semester to teachers 
who have higher education attainment as a part of their professional 
development plans.


9. Performance Evaluation and Professional Improvement: Programs should 
conduct performance evaluations of practitioners, who should show evidence of 
achievement, including: application of learning and reflection, or acquisition 
of new skills and knowledge, as described in the goals of their professional 
development plans. The performance evaluation results should be used to inform 
practitioners' future PD planning.


10. Professional Development System: Each state should have a funded state 
literacy resource center or other agency that provides direct professional 
development to practitioners and technical assistance to help programs 
organize in-house professional development. A person should be designated in 
each program and paid to be the (most often part-time) coordinator of program 
and professional development.


11. Balance between State-driven and Teacher-Driven Professional Development: 
Every state literacy resource center or professional development system/agency 
and every program should use the professional development plans of the 
practitioners in their state or program and/or use needs assessments (in which 
teachers, administrators, and adult learners have participated) to plan 
professional development activities relevant to and driven by teachers' and 
(ultimately) students' needs. The needs for professional development as 
defined by practitioners and adult learners, as well as the needs for program 
improvement, should be evenly balanced with the needs of the state ABE 
regulating agency/ies.


12. Access to Professional Development Activities: The state literacy resource 
center or statewide professional development agency/system should have the 
mandate and funding to ensure that every practitioner (new and experienced, 
part-time and full-time) has access to professional development, throughout 
the year, both inside and outside of his/her program, and that every 
practitioner has access to a variety of types of professional development 
(conferences, workshops, study circles, courses, teacher research and other 
forms of more sustained PD, etc.) with a variety of content, organized at a 
variety of times and locations, including on-line options.


13. Quality of Professional Development: Full-time facilitators of 
professional development should complete an annual plan for organizing and 
delivering professional development, based on discussions with and needs 
assessments of practitioners and adult learners. Professional developers 
should be funded to stay grounded in the field, such as spending a minimum of 
2% of their time each year teaching in the ABE/ESOL classroom. States should 
also have an on-going formative evaluation system for gauging how well the PD 
system is reaching and serving all adult basic education practitioners and 
program directors.


14. Adult Learner Voice in Professional Development: The state professional 
development agency and each individual program should have dedicated funding 
to ensure that adult learners' voices are included in developing professional 
development policies and in delivering professional development at the local 
program, state, and federal levels.


15. Professional Development for Learner Leaders Who Work in the Field: 
Current or former students who are tutors, administrators, program 
coordinators, and counselors, should have access to professional development 
offered by state professional development and technical assistance agencies, 
given additional PD to meet their needs if necessary, and/ or granted 
internships to work and learn within the program.


16. Data Collection Regarding Teacher Characteristics: In addition to using 
the professional development plans of practitioners to make decisions about 
professional develop offerings, states should collect data each year about the 
characteristics of their teachers that would enable them to determine a 
schedule of professional development that would reach the largest number of 
practitioners with appropriate professional development opportunities. Data 
should include:

- the experience level of practitioners (years in the field);
- the type of teaching or population of students they teach (GED, ESOL, etc.);
- the times, days and months during the year that practitioners would prefer 
to attend PD;
- preferred types or models of PD in which they would be willing to 
participate (workshops, study circles, practitioner research, conferences, 
etc.);
- number of hours, annually, of paid professional development they receive 
(from the state or from the program); and
- practitioners' current addresses and/or e-mail (for keeping them abreast of 
PD opportunities).
-----
Footnotes
1 e.g., A full-time teacher, working 40 hours a week at 40 weeks a 
year-summers and holidays off-would work 1600 hours a year, so 2.5% would 
equal 40 hours of paid professional development a year -- equivalent to 5 paid 
days).

2 ABE teachers should be paid the equivalent salary earned by K-12 full and 
part time professionals in the ABE teacher's city or county of employment. Pay 
should be more than what the city/county pays a substitute teacher. The total 
for all policies that indicate % funding allocations is 6% of the salary of a 
full-time teacher.
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