Link Found Between Professional Development and Literacy

 An audit of professional-development literacy programs in a Florida district shows that students of teachers trained in those programs showed significant gains in reading-test scores, reports Education Week.
For each six-hour day teachers in the 130,000-student Duval County district, which includes Jacksonville, took part in the program offered by the Schultz Center for Teaching and Leadership, student scores on state tests rose by half a point.
Given that, if teachers completed a Literacy 101 program offered by the center that includes 84 hours, or 14 days, of instruction, one could expect to see, on average, students in that teacher’s class scoring 7 points higher than the students of a teacher who did not undergo the same training.
The audit, commissioned by the Jacksonville-based Schultz Center, is the first of a multi-year study of professional-development programs the nonprofit center offers Duval County teachers, in literacy, mathematics, and science.
It is also the most recent in a small but increasing body of evidence that indicates high-quality teacher professional development can lead to gains in student learning. A handful of other studies have, in the past, correlated professional development with student learning gains, when the programs are of sufficiently high quality.
For instance, a 2000 study by the Educational Testing Service linked higher student test scores in math with teachers’ professional-development training in higher-order thinking skills. The Schultz Center was set up in 2002 with state grants and private funds to provide training for educators in Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau, and St. John’s counties.
Programs are based partly on a model that supports giving formative assessments, using student work to plan instruction, developing supportive classroom routines, and using the classroom environment to support and reinforce literacy.            

— Teachers of Color