Turbo-Charging Professional Development.

Investing in employee growth yields significant results for a Virginia school system

Student performance has been on the rise in Henrico County, Va., and many would attribute this to the development of a true community of learners via a turbo-charged learning program for employees.

We have made a dramatic commitment to employee growth and development in the Henrico County Public Schools, undergirded by a major resource investment. Our strong platform for professional development is producing positive results.

Three years ago, this metropolitan school system of more than 40,000 students deployed a new employee growth plan that replaced a traditional evaluation system. The new system provides differentiated pathways for growth, based on individual needs. It is driven by personal accountability, self-evaluation and commitment to continuous improvement with a direct linkage to the classroom. One of the most successful business practices today is the emphasis on continuous development of employees as a means to enhance performance.

We're all aware of the national clamor for public education to adopt business practices to improve employee productivity as well as student achievement. The fact is that too often we have looked at professional development as a "little something extra" we do. This casual approach to employee development has at times become a vicious circle: We get poor results, which lead to a diminished willingness to commit resources, which lead to more poor results. It is time to turn professional development around.

Most school districts operate from a deficit model of adult growth. Teachers who lack certain requisite skills are channeled into remediation workshops. Staff development has taken the form of workshops done to someone by someone. Roland Barth, former director of Harvard's Principals Center and author of Improving Schools From Within, suggests administrators are now discovering what teachers have known for a long time--massive in-service programming produces short-term and limited results at best. Recent national surveys clearly indicate that when teachers choose to engage in meaningful professional development activities, it is for one primary reason--to improve student achievement.

Learning From Business

Business consultant Price Pritchett, author of Culture Shift, has indicated that it does not take long for skills and knowledge to become outdated in this fast-changing world. Because lifelong learning is the only way to remain competitive, businesses invest in employee growth, development and self-renewal. This is done with the same commitment a company uses when investing in research and development to come up with new and better products or services.

Teaching and learning in our schools must possess that same commitment to reflect the changing dynamics of work and life in the next century. We need to develop school cultures that are typified by adult learning. Every employee should accept responsibility for continuously upgrading his or her performance. Every employee must hold himself or herself personally accountable for outcomes that require thinking in a broad sense.

We must consider the big picture, looking beyond our own immediate behavior--and beyond the specifics of the job description--to see if we are doing all we should and can to bring about the desired results. Everyone must contribute and combine efforts seamlessly, capitalizing on each other's varied talents and skills to achieve the same end results. To meet the challenges of tomorrow, this attitude must be a cultured norm.

A Financial Commitment

To support and bolster the growth plan in Henrico County, the district is investing up to $700 per year per employee for course work, workshops and conferences connected with the employee's growth plan that has a direct impact on student performance. Last year, more than 1,200 of the system's 2,600 teachers took additional college courses. They are vigorously implementing strategies, activities, projects and programs that affect teaching and learning. Many teachers report that for the first time in their careers, they feel the focus of performance review is on growth rather than a perfunctory checklist.

In the struggle to find time for the myriad needs for training and development outlined in each of the 5,000 employees' growth plans, we developed a summer institute for teachers. The institute, with the theme "Teaching is Learning," offers more than 250 courses for teachers at all grade levels. Sessions focus on technology, classroom management and methodology updates, as well as dozens of other topics. These opportunities are in addition to outside college courses, conferences and workshops.

Teachers are paid a $50 per day stipend upon completion of each summer institute course, which are all taught by professional experts in the various fields who just happen to be outstanding teachers in the school system. This year, more than 1,700 teachers (about 70 percent) registered voluntarily for courses. Many are participating in more than one course, taking advantage of certification credits that are offered in association with the summer institute.

Leadership Growth

To develop the entire learning community, a new leadership training and development program to support administrators' growth plans is being launched as "Leaders are Leaders." Opportunities for professional growth and renewal must be integrated into the daily life of the practitioner.

These opportunities to develop professionally not only benefit the individual in shaping and performing his or her craft, but they also ensure that best practice is everyday practice. In fact, the ability of practitioners to engage in ongoing, quality professional development is a hallmark of enterprises known for high performance and that, not surprisingly, enjoy sustained public confidence.

If teaching is learning, then certainly we need strong instructional leadership to imbue school cultures with adult learning. Numerous courses are offered throughout the year to meet individual or specific school needs, providing an array of leadership development opportunities for principals, assistant principals and central-office staff, as well as aspiring administrators.

While many courses focus on administration performance criteria, seminars also consider cutting edge-leadership research. We must lift our leaders, as Barry Posner declares in his book The Leadership Challenge, so they can challenge teachers to improve the teaching process, inspire a shared vision, enable others, model the way and encourage the heart.

Hitting Bull's-Eyes

On the 1998 Literacy Passport Test, which is a gateway assessment for Virginia 6th-graders, Henrico students broke the district's existing performance record by five points--a 15-point gain over the last six years, even though the at-risk population in the district has doubled during that time. Last year, 4th-grade students continued a trend of strong performance on the Iowa Test of

Basic Skills, and student scholarship funding increased by well over half a million dollars for a record total of $5.3 million in college aid.

In addition to student performance results, the school district received high marks from the 19,000 community residents who participated in a countywide survey a year ago. Henrico's "Report Card From Parents" indicated 90 percent of the parents agreed or strongly agreed that school discipline was effective, 93 percent thought our schools were safe and positive learning environments and 92 percent indicated their children were receiving a quality education.

The school district received national recognition from the National School Boards Association for its leadership in educational technology, including the opportunity of five days of technology training for every teacher. Clearly, performance results such as these suggest we are on target and aiming for the bull's-eye.

Investing for Results

Michael Fullan's research on school improvement suggests that teachers who want to improve their practice are characterized by four attitudes: they accept that it is possible to improve; they are ready to be self-critical; they recognize better practice than their own; and, most importantly, they are willing to learn what has to be learned in order to do what needs to be done.

Along with that, school systems truly interested in improving student performance will dedicate serious resources (time and money) focused on results and supportive of employee learning. When the need and the purpose are there, when the conditions are right, adults and students alike learn--and each energizes and contributes to the learning of the other.

Only a school that is hospitable to adult learning can be a good place for students to learn. Communities of learners seem to be, above all, committed to discovering the conditions that support human learning and to providing these conditions. Investing in employee professional development for results makes sense and has an impact on every child every day. To improve student achievement, public schools must weave continuous learning for teachers into the fabric of this job called teaching.

Management expert Peter Senge tells us in The Fifth Discipline that a learning organization is one where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free and where people are continually learning how to learn together. In the Henrico County Public Schools, we are convinced that investing in employee growth will produce results for improved student performance.

Mark Edwards is superintendent of the Henrico County Public Schools.