Using Professional Initiatives to Improve Student Learning

Two Westwood Regional School District administrators outlined the strategic plan and professional learning program for the district during a special presentation last week.

Director of Personnel Scott Cascone and Director of Elementary Education Rory McCourt spoke to the public and members Thursday about how the district will approach professional development for instructors.

McCourt explained that there is a cycle that determines the initiatives, called CIAPD: curriculum, instruction, assessment, professional development. He said the district first starts with setting standards in the curriculum, which teachers use for instruction. After assessing the process, Cascone and others can create a professional development plan.

Cascone said the district has worked hard in the past five years to better professional learning. He said it is the "engine that drives the vision" of the school district.

"It's the means by which we equip staff with skills and knowledge they need in order to continue to work forward and meet these goals," Cascone said.

Every staff member in the district is trained on Classroom Instruction that Works (CITW), which Cascone described as a set of nine instructional strategies backed by 25 years of analysis that can raise student achievement. He also talked about goal setting, observations and additional data gathering.

Cascone said the professional initiatives are works in progress.

"We're not resting upon our laurels as far as our professional learning program," he said. "We have to continue to push forward with a number of different initiatives including the revision of our mentoring plan which is due coming up this year."

Cascone added that the district will be reinvigorating the Westwood Professional Learning Academy, which had been defunct. The academy includes a set of courses taught by administrators and teachers mainly in the area of instructional technology. He said it would be funded largely from a Title II grant from No Child Left Behind.

One area Cascone stressed as being vital to the process is professional learning communities, or PLCs, which he described as "focused specifically and singularly on improving student achievement."

The PLCs will be tailored to staff members' particular domains, Cascone said, to make them more relevant and useful.

"All staff members are going to participate in PLCs next year and we're really, really excited about the potential these have here but also the profession," Cascone said. "We truly believe that the key to making change in this profession will come through this structure."

McCourt said the district has revised its curriculum into a new format that is meant to make it easier to use and with a greater emphasis on the district mission. He said there is also an attempt to include preparations for standardized tests in the curriculum.

"We spent a tremendous amount of time this year during faculty meeting time and staff development days just working together to revise curriculum," McCourt said. "As we move forward and we talk about the various ways to teach students, the objective is to build your test prep, if you will, into the curriculum so it's a part of the every day, every week cycle of what you're doing. So the tests are embedded in the very curriculum the teacher gets in the beginning of the year."

Parental involvement was also mentioned. "We definitely feel that one of the keys to success moving forward is really having it be a true educational partnership between parents and schools," Cascone said.

At the end of the presentation, Cascone said all the initiatives are done with the goal of achieving the district's mission statement: "To provide excellence in education through rich and diverse learning opportunities, enabling students to exercise intelligent control of their future."