Quality professional development has the power to increase educators’ knowledge of academic content and teaching skills while changing what educators believe about student learning and how they interact with students. Professional development can transform schools into places in which everyone is deeply engaged in learning.
An Aligned Approach
By aligning standards and processes for school/educator quality and increasing access to high-quality professional learning, Vermont offers a statewide system to improve educator quality and increase student learning.
- A Vision for Teaching, Leading, and Learning: Core Teaching and Leadership Standards for Vermont Educators
- Education Quality Standards (EQS) require that all students in Vermont public schools are afforded educational opportunities that are substantially equal in quality, and enable them to achieve or exceed the standards approved by the State Board of Education.
- Vermont’s Educator Licensing requires continual professional growth. Professional learning is required for renewal and/or reinstatement of Level I and Level II licenses. Professional learning needs to be aligned with both the Core Teaching or Leadership Standards for Vermont Educators and the endorsement competencies of the endorsement(s) an educator holds. Vermont educators served by a Local or Regional Standards Board should have professional learning activities pre-approved. For more information refer to the Rules Governing the Licensing of Educators and the Preparation of Educational Professionals.
Professional Learning
High-quality professional learning that spans the continuum of an educator’s career is essential to increase an educator’s knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs so that they may enable all students to learn at high levels. The Professional Learning Network (VT-PLN) is a statewide system to address the need for a coordinated, cohesive, and consistent approach to professional learning across the state with an emphasis on geographic equity and comparable quality articulate in one specific scope of work.
The current contract (August 2016 onward) is focused on key aspects of the implementation of the Education Quality Standards, specifically Proficiency-Based Learning through:
- Instructional Practices
- Flexible Pathways
- Local Comprehensive Assessment Systems
Our contractor for the work is the Center for Collaborative Education, a Boston-based non-profit organization founded in 1994 with a mission of transforming schools to ensure that all students graduate college-and-career-ready, and are prepared to become compassionate, contributing global citizens in the new century. The organization has a staff with extensive experience working with educators in New England, comprised of a team of former principals, administrators, and practitioners. CCE works closely with partners to develop strategies, processes, and tools that are specific to the needs of educators based on the careful collection of data to ascertain local priorities.
Collaborative Learning Groups
Join the Collaborative Learning Groups (CLG), bringing together principals, curriculum coordinators and instructional coaches in job-alike groups – providing focused opportunities for practitioners to work collaboratively in addressing the key components of EQS including:
- Proficiency-Based Learning
- Instructional Practices
- Flexible Pathways
- Local Comprehensive Assessment Systems
Resources
- Coaching as Professional Learning
- Find Professional Learning Opportunities
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Guiding Questions for Building and Strengthening Coaching Systems
Questions?