Professional Development Plan

By: Christie Caparelli

Overview • School Demographics• Staff• Current School Environment• Student Needs• Teacher Needs• Current Professional Development Plan• Recommendations

School Demographics• Approximately 104 students• Grades 6-12• 98% Special Education

(emotional and learning support)

• Students referred by 45 school districts in Western Pennsylvania

Staff• 14 Teachers

-6 Special Education-8 Regular Education

• 10 Education Therapeutic Specialists (Support)

• 7 Clinical Therapists• 1 Transition Coordinator• 5 Administrators

Current School Environment • High School

- 2 Math classrooms- 2 Science classroom- 1 English classrooms- 2 Social Studies classrooms- 3 Elective classrooms (Gym, Art, Woodshop)

• Self-Contained- 1 Middle School room- 1 ASD Middle School room- 1 High School room (severe behaviors)- 1 ASD High School room

Student Needs• More English and Literacy classes taught

at the high school level

• Essay and creative writing workshops

• Improved PSSA and Keystone scores

• Interesting and engaging curriculum and lessons

• SAT and ACT preparation classes

Teacher Needs• Combining or collaboration of English of

Social Studies classes.

• Professional development and training on co-teaching and collaborating

• Better resources and curriculum for effective teaching of both English and Social Studies

• Time to meet with staff members and administration to successfully implement plan

Current Professional Development Plan• Has consisted of mostly mental health

components and effective strategies for teaching students with emotional and learning support needs.

• Any recent professional development that has been aimed specifically at academics and learning have focused on Pennsylvania Department of Education Standards Aligned System, RTII, or the upcoming Keystone Exams

Recommendations• Review the current English and Social

Studies curricula• Review schedules, class sizes, and

credit needs of population• Provide specific professional

development to the English teacher and two Social Studies teachers on how to create a “Humanities” block that would combine history, philosophy, and literature.

Recommendations Cont.• Create a timeline for this transition

that includes one pilot class where the teachers would co-teach one section at a time. (full transition would take place over 1 school year.

• Provide future time in the teacher’s schedules and during in-service days for team meetings and further professional development workshops.

References• Guskey, T.R. & Yoon K. S. (2009).What

Works in Professional Development? Phi Delta Kappan, 90(7), 495-500.

• Spillane, J.P, Halverson, R., & Diamond, J. (2001). Investigating School Leadership practice: A distributed perspective. Educational Researcher, 30(3), 23 -28.

• Pennsylvania Department of Education- Standards Aligned System (2012) Retrieved fromhttp://www.pdesas.org/module/sas/curriculumframework/