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Provide staff development opportunities to assist staff in understanding how the MSPAP, Scope and Sequence, and the school system's quarterly milestone assessments can be used for instructional planning. Offer opportunities for staff to participate in peer coaching and cognitive coaching during which staff can work with one another in collaborative planning and provide collegial feedback on instructional delivery. Train staff in using MSPAP learning indicators and Scope and Sequence indicators for instructional and assessment planning. Specifically, staff may consider how curriculum guides are structured to ensure consistent delivery of content with what is assessed both formatively and summatively. Assist staff in developing study groups, inquiry groups, or action research cohorts through which staff can investigate specific instructional implications of MSPAP and Scope and Sequence. These groups may use their process of inquiry to make instructional modifications to promote student success relative to these learning outcomes. Use a variety of job-embedded staff development approaches (i.e., study groups, action research, peer coaching, and shared inquiry) to reinforce staff understanding and use of performance-based instructional interventions. Potential focus areas include the following:
Brain-compatible learning;
Performance-Based Instruction and Assessment;
Constructivism and cognitive learning theory;
Dimensions of Learning;
Multiple Intelligences (Gardner);
Understanding by Design (Wiggins and McTighe); and
Technology-assisted instructional delivery.
Provide staff development to ensure that staff is able to make IEP modifications consistent with both students' learning disabilities and MSPAP. Provide professional development involving cross-functional groups or teams involving Special Educators and content teachers, ensuring that instructors can differentiate instruction to accommodate all Special Education students' needs and strengths. Train staff in the process of curriculum compacting, particularly for use with Talented and Gifted Students. This process involves ongoing diagnosis of students' strengths and needs relative to identified curriculum standards. Next, staff is able to allow students who have already demonstrated mastery of core knowledge and skills to accelerate the pace of their learning and apply their knowledge and skills in independent ways. Ideally, students can be encouraged to participate in student-generated independent projects that allow them to apply higher-order thinking skills and processes. Provide action research and study group opportunities to staff working with TAG, Advanced Placement, and International Baccalaureate Programs, ensuring continuity and alignment between and across program areas as well as ensuring consistency with MSPAP. In schools with high incidence of English as a Second Language populations, invite central office personnel from the ESOL office to provide staff development related to differentiated instruction related to ESOL students and MSPAP. Create a professional development program that will reinforce the use of peer and cognitive coaching involving both content-area instructors and instructors representing special populations, including TAG, Special Education, and ESOL. A major component of the Skills for Success outcomes initiative involves outcomes related to the following: students' mastery of key technology competencies; ensuring that staff is trained in the use of instructional technologies (e.g., computer-assisted instruction, CD-ROM, laser disk, and internet); and facilitating staff use of various technologies to enhance instructional delivery (e.g., productivity software, word processing, spreadsheets and databases, and presentation software). This training may involve the use of the internet to access information; it may also focus on staff developing internet-based lessons. Additionally, staff may wish to consider how students can use available technologies to enhance their own learning, including data analysis and presentation, research projects, and skills acquisition.
