July/August 1999

By Dennis Sparks

To complicate the problem, today's teachers face a tougher assignment than educators from previous generations. They must raise student performance for a more diverse and disadvantaged student population than ever before. And they must meet tougher national standards while introducing new technologies and mainstreaming special education students.

This situation demands that teachers be learners throughout their careers. What other major U.S. industry involved in well-publicized global competition-as America's K-12 schools are today-would not invest generously in the continuous retraining of its employees? Unfortunately, both educators and the public have ambivalent feelings about teachers themselves becoming learners. While recognizing the importance of high-quality teaching, both groups are concerned that staff development detracts from valuable classroom time and doubt that investment in teacher learning yields improvements in student learning.

This skepticism may explain why so few teachers have had the professional learning opportunities they need. Only 20 percent of teachers in the U.S. Department of Education survey said they were confident in using new technologies or working with students from diverse backgrounds, with limited proficiency in English, or with disabilities. The survey also found that only 19 percent of respondents had been formally mentored by another teacher. Two-thirds had never participated in a formal induction program when they first began teaching.

In the past, such skepticism about staff development may have been justified. New research on teacher development, however, indicates that students, not just teachers, benefit from well-designed staff development programs. For instance, David Cohen of the University of Michigan found that California teachers who participated in sustained professional development based on mathematics curriculum standards were more likely to use reform-oriented teaching practices and have students who achieved at higher levels on the state mathematics test.

In addition, 13 schools or school systems have been recognized in the past two years by the U.S. Department of Education for the link between their staff development efforts and student learning. Furthermore, the National Staff Development Council has identified 26 staff development programs in its recent report, "What Works in the Middle: Results-Based Staff Development," which improve the learning of middle-level students in the core academic areas.

Staff development programs work best when designed to deepen teachers' knowledge of the content they teach and expand their repertoire of research-based instructional skills. These programs provide ongoing classroom assistance in implementing these new skills, create regular opportunities for serious collaborative work, develop teachers' classroom assessment skills, and connect teachers to other professionals within and beyond their schools.

The potential of any educational improvement program will be wasted unless teachers have the training, follow-up, time, and other forms of support they need to implement them. While many school districts are beginning to recognize that they must do all they can to hire, retain, and appropriately assign outstanding teachers, they also must involve all teachers in continuous, intellectually rigorous study of the content they teach and the ways they teach it.

The public needs to support quality staff development. Efforts to expand teachers' knowledge and skills will pay off for students if staff development is tied to clear and high standards for student learning and if every teacher is given ample time to learn, absorb, and implement the new techniques and technologies. Only then can we create a teaching force that is prepared to teach in tomorrow's classrooms.

Dennis Sparks is executive director of the National Staff Development Council, an 8,000-member professional organization based in Oxford, OH.