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| Annette Breaux provides keynote for August 4, 2008 Professional Development Day! |
Mission Statement: The mission of the Blount County Professional Development Program is to provide a high quality program of professional development supporting student success in the classroom.
Each school in the system plans professional development activities as a part of the School Continuous Improvement Plan to address identified priorities, needs, goals, and objectives at the local school level. A system-wide plan of professional development is then created to address the areas identified by the school plans and other pertinent data.
RESULTS/PLANNING PROCESS
The system professional development committee, composed of a representative of each school, identifies professional development needs. Needs and priorities are established based on multiple sources of data, including but not limited to: Blount County Needs Assessment, Alabama Assessment Data, system assessment data, and surveys.
The results of the 2008 Needs Assessment completed by professional staff members indicated the following:
PROGRAM: Professional Development | Very Satisfied 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | No Response |
Number | 325 | 85 | 46 | 9 | 10 | 0 |
Percentage | 68% | 18% | 10% | 2% | 2% | 0 |
The results of the 2008 Needs Assessment completed by professional staff members indicated the following:
When responses 4 and 5 are totaled, professional development is viewed as addressing needs more than satisfactorily by 86%of the respondents. This positive response is attributed to the following:
Continued emphasis on and interest in professional development
Provided professional development opportunities addressing needs of professional staff as indicated by surveys and assessments.
Continuation of an after-school and summer professional development program opportunities.
Cooperative efforts with NATE Inservice Center to place professional development opportunities in Blount County during the summer.
Development of school based professional development plans allowing professional development opportunities to better reflect individual school needs and objectives.
Continuation of FLEX professional development program option.
The Needs Assessment also indicated the following for priority areas for professional development (in rank order):
1 - Continue to provide the FLEX professional development opportunity.
2 - Continue emphasis on improvement of the quality of classroom instruction and provide training opportunities in a variety of settings supporting identified needs and priorities.
3 - Continue to provide opportunities for unique professional development opportunities, such as classrom and school site visits, book studies, study groups, collaboration teams, online options, etc.
Attention: It's time to begin planning for the 2009 Summer Professional Development opportunities! Do you have a suggestion? We will consider all suggestions and hope you will let us know what you need! Funds are limited this year, due to proration, so get your suggestion in early! The preliminary list of options will be published in February and finalized by May. The deadline to submit suggestions for Summer 2009 workshops is April 3rd. Don't let your idea be left out of consideration! Email Mitchie Neel (mneel@blountboe.net) with your ideas!
