Fulton Public Schools

Professional Development

Professional Development Plan

The Professional Development Plan is approved each August by the Board of Education.

The PD Plan contains budgetary items that are needed to carry out District initiatives.

PLC, PBS, Teacher Academy, Leadership Academy, and Tuition Reimbursement, CPI training, Special Education training, Summer PD, speakers, Mentor training, and building PD $ are all a part of the PD plan.

Building PD

On each of the six (6) Professional Development days we have each year, the Building Leadership Team and the Principal drive the learning opportunities in each building in the morning.

In the afternoon, departments meet, curriculum work is addressed, and sometimes the buildings continue their morning work. There are also some days where the District as a whole meets with a speaker or is provided training such as Active Shooter Training.

PD Surveys

There are three (3) types of surveys that are done regarding Professional Development.

Needs Assessment

Needs Assessment—this is done once every three years and is used to get the pulse of the District on what works and what doesn’t work. This was last done in May of 2013 and will be done again in May of 2016. The questions can be changed by the PD Committee depending on what information is needed each time.This survey is anonymous.

Needs Assessment ?s

1. What type of format for in-services is beneficial to you? For example: after school, job embedded, study groups, single one-day approach, etc. Why?

2. What impacts your ability to positively impact student achievement?

3. What current study/PD activity are you engaged in that you would like to continue?

4. What factors inhibit student success in your classroom?

5. Have you heard of any educational “buzzwords” or topics about which you feel you need to be more informed? Please give examples.

6. What Professional Development from this year did you find most beneficial? Least beneficial? Please explain.

HQPD Survey

The High Quality Professional Development Survey is done once a year and requires the certified staff’s name. It is a part of DESE Core Data and is reported per certified person.

In order to be considered High Quality, a person must mark all seven (7) of the first set of questions and at least one in the second and third set.

From the survey the staff took this year, 7 out of 149 didn’t consider the PD offered High Quality

PD Evaluations

The PD Evaluation form is filled out after each Professional Development encounter whether that is in District or outside the District.

This evaluation is anonymous.

From the evaluation forms for 2015-16, most fall in the 7-10 range with a smattering of lower ratings.

For in-house PD, out of over 900 evaluations forms turned in, 95% rated 7-10. Most of the lower numbers were on relevance to needs.

Google Drive

The PD Committee keeps a record of all PD offered in District for the year on Google Drive.

Teachers are able to access this information for use as evidence to upgrade their certification, fill in their CEU logs, and to see what is available.