Hello Robin and others,

You have given us some good questions to consider in reviewing the
proposed AALPD standards:

1. Are the proposed standards too general? Which ones? All of them?
2. Are they too specific, too prescriptive? Which ones?
3. I believe that the question of whether or not to have professional
development standards is still open. Are there good reasons not to have
them? Are there good reasons to have them? Do you think some or all of
the proposed standards would advance the field, help to improve teaching
and learning? If so, which standards would advance the field?

Let's hear from everyone on these questions. Now is the time.  As one of
the developers of the draft standards I want to know what you think. If
we don't hear from you we'll probably proceed with what we have.  Is
that what you want? If not, speak up now. Criticism won't hurt our
feelings; it will help make the standards better, more useful. If
there's something you like, let us know that, too, so we don't throw it
out with the bath water.

David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net



robinschwarz1 at aol.com wrote:


> Jackie and the list-- my experience with standards is that it is hard 

> to know in the abstract whether standards help or not. Sometimes 

> standards are so general and loose that they hardly serve any purpose 

> despite a lot of time and money spent on developing them. For example, 

> in one of the states I work with there are adult ESOL learning 

> standards: These read " Learners will improve ability to understand 

> spoken English";  "Learners will write in English," etc.  This is pure 

> foolishness.  What were such "standards" developed for?  What English 

> class would not have these as goals?  Is it really necessary to codify 

> basic outcomes such as these?  Any increase in comprehension or any 

> ability to write a word in English would satisfy such goals. 

>

> Conversely, standards can be too prescriptive, limiting creative 

> approaches to a highly fluid, very human process.

> By their nature, standards would have to either be the consolidated 

> ideas of some group assigned to write them, or a compromise between 

> those wanting nothing and those wanting rules and guidelines, which 

> could mean the standards cannot really meet the needs of those who 

> will provide PD and those who will be recipients of it. 

>

> A comment I read some months ago on very highly prescriptive standards 

> being developed for adult ESOL indicated that the purpose of the 

> standards seemed to be mainly to provide a roadmap for teachers who 

> have no idea how to direct the direction of a class.  I wondered what 

> well-trained veteran ESOL teachers would make of such standards.   I 

> would want a pretty clear picture of what purpose PD standards were 

> intended to serve.  

>

> Robin Lovrien Schwarz

>

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: Taylor, Jackie <jataylor at utk.edu>

> To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List 

> <professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov>

> Sent: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 11:16 am

> Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1737] Considerations with PD standards

>

> PD List Colleagues,

> Janet Isserlis has been very patient with me in allowing me to hold a 

> question of hers until our discussions began. I???ll be sending it 

> through in a few moments. Like Janet, I would like to revisit some of 

> the questions that Claire raised in her posting last week regarding 

> issues with professional development standards. From your perspective 

> in general, what are the benefits and drawbacks of having a set of 

> quality standards for professional development? Will having a set of 

> standards really make a difference in the professional development we 

> provide? In what ways will they matter? In what ways may they present 

> drawbacks or even barriers to our work?

>  

> I look forward to hearing from you.

>  

> Warm regards, Jackie

>  

> ~ Jackie Taylor, jataylor at utk.edu <mailto:jataylor at utk.edu>

>  

>

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>Professional Development section of the Adult Literacy Education Wiki 

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>Jackie  <http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Adult_Literacy_Professional_Development>http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Adult_Literacy_Professional_Development

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