Ensuring that well-qualified personnel exist in every classroom is a guiding principle in the life of a school and the purpose of staff development. This course focuses on the contemporary view of staff development as a component of continuous school improvement.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completing this course, you will be able to:
- Recognize and employ best practices for managing the school environment to support induction; recruiting, hiring, and placement; building relationships and fostering instructional development; and visioning for staff development.
- Understand organizational development requirements and effectively employ the three pillars of school improvement.
- Foster a learning community best suited to the school and based on common vision and shared decision making.
- Use self-assessment and staff development techniques and strategies to effectively gauge the success of staff development initiatives.
Standards:
This course is aligned with the following PSEL standards (NPBEA, 2015):
Standard 6: Professional Capacity of School Personnel
Effective educational leaders develop the professional capacity and practice of school personnel to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.”
Standard 7: Professional Community for Teachers and Staff
Effective educational leaders foster a professional community of teachers and other professional staff to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.”
The importance of human capital and the context, process, and content necessary for continuous professional staff development are stressed.
In the role of leading human resource development, you are required to foster ongoing school improvement, centered on student learning, through building human capital. Human resource leadership roles and responsibilities for principals and assistant principals include recruiting, selecting, nurturing and retaining personnel.
The definition of and reason for staff development is becoming increasingly clear from the results of ongoing school improvement research. It has moved from a focus on individual teacher requirements to staff requirements, with emphasis on the learning needs of students. Staff development approaches have become learner-centered and results-driven, taking place inside the learning environment as a routine systematic process, rather than a one-shot professional activity centered on information acquisition from outside experts.
Select a lesson from the table of contents below to begin your learning. Lessons do not need to be completed in sequence. The pre-test and post-test are optional. If you would like to receive a certificate of completion, you must mark each lesson as complete.