Investing in teachers, support staff and their professional development is one of the most important responsibilities of the educational leader. I have been blessed to work in an organization that believes in people in the number one resource for student success and when hiring uses the motto, “Hire for character, teach for skill.” This philosophy has created a culture of motivated adult learners who continually seek to improve their professional practice and knowledge base.
Four years ago, under the vision of a gifted program specialist and assistant superintendent who believed in investing in employees as professionals, what is now referred to as the Core 7 Professional Development Model began. The goal was to develop teacher expertise in evidence-based practices for students on the autism spectrum. (See the National Professional Development’s Center AIM Resources – http://www.autisminternetmodules.org/user_mod.php). Since the onset of this vision, the program has grown to include one full release day per month for morning teacher collaboration directed by the teachers themselves. This is followed by an afternoon of group training which includes the expectation that management staff participate in the learning of the practice being focused on for the month. In addition, monthly staff meeting time has become a focused professional development session on the topic of the month. Parents, community members and educators from other districts are invited to attend as well as classified staff who are paid for their time.
One of the greatest discoveries of diving into these practices was finding out that these effective strategies are not limited to success with students on the spectrum. Rather, these practices are a foundation for good teaching in general. For example, looking at classroom structure as an antecedent based intervention to support positive student behaviors is effective in all educational environments. We see evidence of video-modeling across skill and subject matters as the Flipped Classroom grows in popularity, not to mention how often youtube videos are used on a daily basis by the average learner to support picking up skills such as learning how to tie a tie.
It is now the fourth year of implementation of the Core 7 Model. The results are a certificated and classified staff of motivated adult learners, as well as the ability to attract highly motivated applicants for open positions. During the interview process, when we begin with the question, “Tell us about why you are interested in this position?” it is not uncommon to hear responses such, “I’ve heard that you in invest in the professional development of your people and they’re trained to be successful.” “I want to work with children and I heard you have good training that would be help me do a good job.” These results and responses serve as a powerful testimonial of the importance of investing in our educators as Lead Learners who are than able to collaborate, coach and train with each to become expert educators.
Education, Leadership, and Pedagogy 