Question: What is high-quality professional development for teachers in career-technical education (CTE)?

Answer: Professional development customized to the needs of teachers and the system!

Customized Professional Development
for Educators and Administrators

In theory, a profession is a group of people with similar interests and issues who are engaged in a lifelong learning process of gaining new knowledge, skills, and insights for the purpose of improving their practice and solving problems. In reality, most professional development is about taking a course or workshop to satisfy licensure requirements. The Academy for Excellence in Teaching is a unique opportunity for Joint Vocational School Districts and Career Technology Centers to work in conjunction with their LPDCs and school administrators to customize programs that help teachers take control of their own learning—the "system" expects, supports, and promotes the educators' efforts while the students, administrators, and community all benefit!

The Academy wants to be a catalyst in creating a win-win solution to CTE professional development needs! Using the seven guiding principles outlined by the Ohio Department of Education's LPDC Advisory Council's framework for Professional Development (PD), high-quality outcomes will be observed when a CTE PD process is—

1. Results-oriented: Increases the capacity of educators to improve student achievement
2. Individualized: Addresses educators varied experiences and needs
3. Job-Embedded: Relevant and integrated into the educator's principal work
4. Collaborative: Creates communities of practice that support continuous inquiry, collaboration, and growth
5. Research-based: Applies knowledge from learning theory and research with exemplary and promising practices
6. Data-Driven: Based on student data, aligned with district and building goals, and focused on a specific set of targeted improvements in student learning
7. Systematic: Provides a "process" over time with system support for acquiring new skills and incorporating them into practice

Source: Quality Professional Development: A Guide for Ohio's Educators (2001).

In addition, the Academy supports the underlying assumptions of the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). NBPTS suggests five core propositions underlying their standards that support professional development emphasizing a "reflection-action component," which demands that educators "think critically" and "work collaboratively" in their practice.

Five Core Propositions Underlying The NBPTS Standards

• Teachers are committed to students and their learning
• Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to their 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.

Source: Guide to National Board Certification (2001).

The Academy for Excellence in Teaching supports these core propositions as a partner in creating the learning communities that support the students who are the future of Ohio's Workforce! The cutting-edge research available through the Academy, in the hands of professional educators, supported by a system of administrators, will lead to the benefits needed by the students and the community now and in the future!