Menomonee Falls School District serves 4,300 students in a suburb northwest of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We have more than 350 teachers in four elementary schools, one middle school, one junior high school, and one high school. Like districts throughout the country, we have wrestled with the challenge of finding ways to raise student achievement. With that goal in mind, teachers and administrators in our school district have joined forces to create a districtwide structure for teachers' professional growth. Our efforts at working together won us a National Education Association-Saturn/United Auto Workers Partnership Award for 2001.
In 1999, as part of our joint bargaining process, the school district and the teacher professional organization agreed to create a Joint Committee for Professional Development. The committee consisted of a teacher representative from each of our seven schools, a union representative, and six administrators, including a school board member and the superintendent. We agreed that each person had an equal voice; this was not a top-down arrangement, but rather a collaborative effort among the groups who would benefit from the program. The committee agreed that professional development is a shared responsibility, requiring a commitment from all staff members and an investment of school district time and resources.
The Professional Development Certificate
To encourage and document the growth that we wanted our teachers to undertake, the committee created the Professional Development Certificate. Any teacher who has been teaching in the Menomonee Falls School District for five years and has completed a master's degree can participate in this program. To earn the Professional Development Certificate, qualified teachers must develop a personal professional development plan, earn nine additional graduate credits, and develop a statement of their personal teaching philosophy and goals. At each step along the way, the school district provides guidance and support.
The Professional Development Certificate has been constructed in a way that requires teachers to reflect on their own professional growth. Teachers who have earned their certificate have commented on the value of this opportunity. The certificate is presented publicly at a school board meeting. As a final incentive, teachers who earn their certificate receive an additional $1,500 each year for five years.
Personal Development Plan
- Teachers are committed to students and their learning.
- Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students.
- Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning.
- Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience.
- Teachers are members of learning communities.
Reflecting current changes in education practices, individual teacher's goals often focus on increasing the use of technology in the classroom. Many teachers also challenge themselves to find ways to meet the needs of all their students and to make the learning that happens in their classroom real for all students.
Graduate Credits
As a major component of our professional development program, teachers engage in ongoing education. We expect any teacher interested in earning the Professional Development Certificate to take nine credits of graduate courses that are aligned with the district's goals. Wisconsin law requires teachers to earn six graduate credits every five years, but some of our experienced teachers have been grand-fathered in under a lifetime license and require no further coursework to fulfill the state mandate. The Professional Development Certificate program gives these experienced teachers fresh motivation to continue their education.
Teachers are free to choose their own courses if they wish, but their courses must be approved by the superintendent. To support teachers as they work on their certificate, we developed partnerships with the University of Wisconsin—Madison, Cardinal Stritch University, and Alverno College to offer courses that would best support our district goals. The classes are team taught by Joint Committee for Professional Development members and college or university professors. Grant money is available from the Department of Public Instruction so that the teachers do not pay full tuition for these courses. The school district pays for two of the three classes required for the Professional Development Certificate, and the teachers pay $100 per credit for the remaining class.
Classes on mentoring were a natural choice, because Menomonee Falls has had a community-wide mentoring program in place since 1991. In 1999, Mentoring and Coaching New Teachers became one of the first graduate classes offered as part of the Professional Development Certificate program. This graduate class gives experienced teachers the opportunity to develop coaching and observation strategies, identify community resources, and acquire a collection of professional strategies and advice. In the first year that this class was offered, 77 professional mentors were certified to work with new teachers. The pairing of mentors and protégés resulted in a retention rate of 34 out of 35 new teachers that year.
To encourage increased reflection, we also offered two classes on action research: Linking Action Research to Classroom Teaching Practices and Action Research Class on the Issues in the Teaching of Writing. Under the guidance of professors, the teachers who enroll in these classes look at the effectiveness of the strategies that they are using in their classrooms. Teachers are encouraged to reflect on their practice, to share findings with colleagues, and to make decisions about future instructional practices. During the first year, 54 teachers enrolled in action research and presented the results of their research to their peers. The topics have been as varied as the teachers and the subjects that they teach. They have included Improving Writing in Lit. 12, Cue-Triggered Responses with Aroma and Taste, and Portfolios in the Kindergarten Classroom.
Another class offered in conjunction with the program, Assessment in the Standards-Based Classroom, challenges teachers to look at the relationship of the state and district standards to the rubrics and standards that the teachers used in their own classrooms. Teachers are encouraged to change their focus from thinking about what they have taught to measuring what their students have learned.
Although teachers are not limited to these classes, taking them offers several advantages. The classes are held in the district, which cuts travel time for many teachers, and they are partially funded by Joint Committee for Professional Development funds. Most important, almost all members of the class are district teachers. The conversations that begin in class during the evening can be carried on in the teachers' own schools during the day. These classes encourage a camaraderie among the teachers who attend them and provide an opportunity for teachers to hear about challenges and successes in schools and grade levels other than their own.
Submitting the Portfolio
Teachers complete the Professional Development Certificate program by submitting a portfolio that includes a copy of their personal professional development plan, a statement of purpose for participating in the program, and documentation of nine graduate credits, including an abstract describing the teacher's action research topic. Each teacher's portfolio must include a two- or three-page paper describing the teacher's philosophy of education. Although we expect that the philosophies will share some common characteristics and relate to our district teaching standards, we also expect that they will reflect teachers' individual beliefs and values.
Teachers must also include evidence of proficiency for each of the district standards. They use artifacts from their own teaching to demonstrate the practical application of the standards in their instruction.
Finally, the portfolio must include a 3–5 page reflection paper. In this paper, teachers reflect on what they have learned from the certificate experience and offer feedback to the committee to improve of the process.
Portfolios are presented to the Joint Committee for Professional Development for approval. The teacher also meets with the committee to present the information orally. At this time, the committee discusses with the teacher the growth that he or she has experienced and the impact the process has had on his or her teaching. Both groups benefit from the experience.
Progress So Far
During the first year of the process, seven teachers have successfully submitted final portfolios, and several others have indicated that they are nearly ready to do so.
It has been a remarkable experience for all those involved. A subtle but distinct cultural change has taken place in the district. Professional development no longer means simply an accumulation of credits or clock hours. There is growing respect for the self-direction and commitment that teachers bring to their own growth.
We have managed to create an opportunity that all participants see as beneficial, and we have enjoyed the chance to share opinions on professional issues with one another. The Professional Development Certificate may not be suited to every district, but in Menomonee Falls, we believe that this program has yielded benefits for everyone—teachers, administrators, and students.
