Teacher Development!

I found this brilliant piece on Edutopia. I've cut it down to go on the blog but it is well worth reading in full.


"There are four key elements to establishing a sustainable system for teacher development:
1. A Common Language to Define Teacher Practice
While long-time educators may claim they "know good teaching when they see it," as a system, we need to move toward a shared understanding of what effective teaching looks like and how to identify it.
2. An Aligned, Rigorous and Common Student Assessment System
The US is increasingly focused on annual standardized test scores as the key metric of a district’s or school’s success. While AUSL takes these measures seriously, the year-end tests themselves are not very useful in developing teachers. The scores arrive after school is let out, and the results are too blunt an instrument to divine teach teacher effectiveness or student deficiencies.
3. A Systematized "Signature Strategies" for Instruction
We believe it's essential to identify common "signature strategies" that all teachers should know and to build our common language around teacher practice. The goal is to help teachers improve.
4. An Individualized and Active Teacher Coaching System
Once we can describe the practice, measure impact, and get very specific about improvement, we find ourselves with a wonderful problem: nearly every teacher has a different plan for improvement!"

If you want to read the whole article you can visit the Edutopia site at http://www.edutopia.org/blog/digital-divide-achievement-gap-teacher-development.
Chris