Assessment of Students Performance April 1997
EXHIBIT 6-8
Types of Professional Development and
Teachers' Comments Concerning Their Helpfulness
| School | Primary Mode of Professional Development | Teacher Comments Concerning Helpfulness of Professional Development Activities |
| State-initiated assessments | ||
| Manzanita (AZ) | Train-the-trainer | Helpful with respect to logistics of administration but not in other respects |
| Breckenridge (KY) | Train-the-trainer | Not enough professional development with respect to how to score portfolios; but the scoring sessions themselves provide good professional development |
| Walters (MD) | Train-the-trainer | Teachers could not remember what professional development they received |
| Hudson (NY) | None | Not applicable |
| Crandall (OR) | Conferences, symposia, institutes | The sessions were helpful but the numerous aspects of assessment reform were hard to keep straight |
| Maple Leaf (VT) | Train-the-trainer | Several sessions are held each year and are helpful, especially with respect to scoring portfolios |
| District-initiated assessments | ||
| McGary (CO) | Conferences, symposia, institutes | Teachers are very enthusiastic about the district-run "Assessment Academy" |
| Westgate (VA) | Train-the-trainer | Helpful with respect to logistics of administration but not in other respects |
| Windermere (NJ) | Collaboration with outside experts | Helpful for evaluating the system and insuring reliability of scoring procedures |
| National/school-initiated assessments | ||
| Ann Chester (NSP) | Conferences, symposia, institutes | NSP conferences are useful to teachers learning to construct tasks and use rubrics |
| Noakes (NSP) | Conferences, symposia, institutes | NSP conferences are useful to teachers learning to construct tasks and use rubrics |
| Cooper (CES) | Conferences, symposia, institutes | The few teachers who have been able to participate in CES conferences have found them to be helpful, but the school cannot afford to have many teachers attend |
| Sommerville (Pacesetter) | Conferences, symposia, institutes | The College Board's summer and mid-year Institutes are useful to teachers, but they find some of the emphases of the activities to be irrelevant to the situation they face at their school |
| School-initiated assessments | ||
| Thoreau | None | Not applicable |
| Park | Collaboration with outside experts | Teachers value highly collaborating with the Center for Collaborative Education |
| Ni?os Bonitos | Collaboration with outside experts | Teachers found it very useful to be able to work with outside experts in developing their mathematics assessment; collaboration facilitated development (a few years earlier they developed their language arts portfolio on their own) |