Jacy Ippolito

Scaling up professional learning: technical expectations and adaptive challenges

In order to be effective, professional development efforts are most promising if they are context specific and focus on supporting collaboration. Increasingly, schools initiate professional development with small groups of teachers, with the intention that the effects of the initiatives will spill over to other school personnel. This study follows one such context-specific and collaboration-driven professional development initiative designed to support teachers in implementing new disciplinary literacy practices. Qualitative data – including interviews, focus group data and written narratives from participants – were analyzed to understand how teachers understood the work of participating in a professional learning community over two years and how they thought about scaling their work to other teachers. Initially, participants perceived change as technical and straightforward, but they came to revise their views over time. However, participants’ increasingly complex views of change eventually came into conflict with teachers not in the project, who expected advice about making similar instructional changes to be much simpler. We conclude with implications for how school leaders and professional developers might manage expectations and lead change efforts in ways that balance technical and adaptive work over time.

Preparing reading/literacy specialists to meet changes and challenges: International Literacy Association’s Standards 2017

ABSTRACT Lead writers and co-chairs of the International Literacy Association’s Standards 2017 provide a hands on guide to using updated standards for the preparation of reading/literacy specialists. Authors share key changes in content, supporting explanations with updated references, and implications for program faculty, state policymakers, and specialist candidates. Standards 2017 adds a new seventh standard for Practicum/Clinical Experiences and sets high expectations for programs to incorporate candidate experiences with technology, diversity, collaboration, and advocacy. Processes to work with colleagues to design or re-design, implement, and evaluate programs are discussed.

Principals’ Perspectives on the Roles of Specialized Literacy Professionals

Elementary and secondary principals were surveyed to better understand their perceptions of the roles and impact of specialized literacy professionals (e.g., reading specialists, coaches) in their schools. A 32-question survey was completed by 103 Pennsylvania principals across elementary and secondary school contexts. Findings include distinct differences reported between roles of reading/literacy specialists and coaches, with few differences noted within roles, across elementary and secondary levels. The frequency and type of specialized literacy professional activities aligned with those principals deemed most important to literacy program improvement. Results indicated that surveyed principals viewed their specialized literacy professionals as having an important influence on literacy teaching and learning. The results have implications for those who prepare specialized literacy professionals and those who employ them. These findings corroborate and update earlier studies of specialized literacy professionals that described their multiple roles, including that of sharing in the leadership of the school’s literacy program.