Teacher Amy Ihde helps student Koby Moore with an assignment at the North Fayette Valley High School in West Union. This school year, 70 hours of professional development were scheduled for teachers including Ihde at NFV. A good deal of in-service time is spent on Iowa’s Core Curriculum, which is credited by school officials for having a positive impact on NFV by identifying the standards and benchmarks that need to be taught at each grade level and connecting those to the characteristics of effective instruction in order to help teachers meet the needs of all students. (Zak Kriener photo)

More effective teaching the goal of in-service time

Brian Smith
Contributing Writer
bsmith@fayettepublishing.com

Collaboration, innovation, and improvement. No matter what your occupation, these things are usually a part of the equation if you hope to be successful. If you are willing to incorporate them into the way you do business, the chances of being productive will increase. North Fayette Valley Curriculum Director Betsy Nefzger said the same holds true in the field of education.

            “Imagine if those in the medical field didn’t continue to learn professionally and time was not given to surgeons across the country to become skilled in new surgical procedures. Their patients would definitely be impacted. It is no different with teachers, who need in-service time in order to keep up with the most effective teaching strategies and content. Without it, students would be negatively impacted,” said Nefzger, who coordinates professional development for NFV teachers.

            This school year, 70 hours of professional development were scheduled for teachers at NFV. Some of those hours took place on full days, while others occurred on Wednesday early-dismissals. The state of Iowa requires schools to have a minimum of 36 hours of professional development, which must be related to student achievement and teacher quality.           

            “This year our areas of focus have been Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW) for 7-12 teachers, curriculum alignment to the Iowa Core, technology, students considered to be at-risk or at poverty level, standards-based reporting, and, of course, our Professional Learning Communities (PLCs),” noted the administrator.

            A PLC is an ongoing process in which teachers work collaboratively to improve student learning. Through a strong focus on student results, such as student work, tests, grades, and other evidence of student learning, teachers collaborate to improve their own practices as well as respond to students in need of intervention or extension. Interventions provide additional support to students who need it, while extensions broaden or deepen a student’s learning experience.

            At NFV, the collaborative teams that are created through the PLCs may change based on district or student needs. Twenty-eight organized teams met at regularly scheduled times throughout the year.

“A teacher can actually be on multiple collaborative teams, which might meet once a month or three times a month depending on what they are working on,” explained Nefzger.

Elementary teams were put together by grade level, while middle school and high school teams were assembled by content or as an AIW team. Nefzger identified AIW teams as being a new addition to NFV this year, with three teams currently trained and implementing AIW practices in grades 7-12.

            As part of an AIW team, each teacher brings a lesson, student assessment, or activity and presents it to his or her team members. It is then scored using specific learning criteria based on solid educational research. This is followed by a professional discussion on how to improve the lesson, assessment, or activity; teachers then make any needed revisions and implement it in their classes.

            “Teachers currently involved in an AIW group have told me that this experience has been, hands-down, the most meaningful professional development they have participated in for quite some time. It has a high impact on teacher effectiveness and student achievement,” added Nefzger.

            Each team is responsible for recording agendas, discussions, and actions taken during their meeting times on a shared website. Administrators also circulate during times when PLC groups are working, as well as monitor the implementation of school improvement initiatives while in classrooms doing their regular walk-through or evaluation visits. The teacher evaluation process may also include progress made in implementing school improvement concepts and strategies.

            Plans for next year’s professional development are already underway. Nefzger said that she revisits the Iowa Professional Development model each year to start designing a focus for the district.

            “Assessment data from the Iowa Assessment and MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) are brought to the District Leadership Team (DLT).  Annual student achievement goals are then developed by the DLT and presented for approval to the School Improvement Advisory Committee (SIAC) and the school boards,” elaborated Nefzger.

            Once approved, these goals become the focus for planning professional development for the following year. Each year the district partners with Keystone Area Education Agency (AEA) to plan and implement professional learning for teachers, using their consultants to provide a vast majority of the training sessions.

            With the introduction of the Iowa Core Curriculum seven years ago, Nefzger believes the need for professional development time has increased. She feels that even though there were many parts of the Iowa Core with which teachers and schools were already familiar, there were other components that teachers needed time to learn.

            “Without professional development time, schools would definitely not be able to meet the needs of students and prepare them adequately for a job or career. I think overall the Iowa Core Curriculum, on which we spend a good deal of in-service time, has had a positive impact on NFV by identifying the standards and benchmarks that need to be taught at each grade level and connecting those to the characteristics of effective instruction in order to help teachers meet the needs of all students,” closed Nefzger.