Laura M. Desimone

What Makes Professional Development Effective? Results From a National Sample of Teachers

This study uses a national probability sample of 1,027 mathematics and science teachers to provide the first large-scale empirical comparison of effects of different characteristics of professional development on teachers’ learning. Results, based on ordinary least squares regression, indicate three core features of professional development activities that have significant, positive effects on teachers’ self-reported increases in knowledge and skills and changes in classroom practice: (a) focus on content knowledge; (b) opportunities for active learning; and (c) coherence with other learning activities. It is primarily through these core features that the following structural features significantly affect teacher learning: (a) the form of the activity (e.g., workshop vs. study group); (b) collective participation of teachers from the same school, grade, or subject; and (c) the duration of the activity.

Improving Impact Studies of Teachers’ Professional Development: Toward Better Conceptualizations and Measures

The author suggests that we apply recent research knowledge to improve our conceptualization, measures, and methodology for studying the effects of teachers’ professional development on teachers and students. She makes the case that there is a research consensus to support the use of a set of core features and a common conceptual framework in professional development impact studies. She urges us to move away from automatic biases either for or against observation, interviews, or surveys in such studies. She argues that the use of a common conceptual framework would elevate the quality of professional development studies and subsequently the general understanding of how best to shape and implement teacher learning opportunities for the maximum benefit of both teachers and students.

Effects of Professional Development on Teachers’ Instruction: Results from a Three-year Longitudinal Study

This article examines the effects of professional development on teachers’ instruction. Using a purposefully selected sample of about 207 teachers in 30 schools, in 10 districts in five states, we examine features of teachers’ professional development and its effects on changing teaching practice in mathematics and science from 1996–1999. We found that professional development focused on specific instructional practices increases teachers’ use of those practices in the classroom. Furthermore, we found that specific features, such as active learning opportunities, increase the effect of the professional development on teacher’s instruction.

How Can Comprehensive School Reform Models Be Successfully Implemented

Comprehensive school reform, or CSR, a currently a popular approach to school improvement, is intended to foster schoolwide change that affects all aspects of schooling (e.g., curriculum, instruction, organization, professional development, and parent involvement). Federal, state, and local legislation and funding have supported CSR implementation, and in 1997 Congress enacted the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration program, which gives financial support to schools adopting such reforms. This article reviews and synthesizes the literature that documents CSR implementation, positing that the more specific, consistent, authoritative, powerful, and stable a policy is, the stronger its implementation will be. It finds that all five policy attributes contribute to implementation; in particular, specificity is related to implementation fidelity, power to immediate implementation effects, and consistency, authority, and stability to long-lasting change.

Are We Asking the Right Questions? Using Cognitive Interviews to Improve Surveys in Education Research

Improving the validity and reliability of surveys is a critical part of the response to the call for improved rigor of education research, policy analysis and evaluation. Too often we create inquiry tools without validating our measures against how respondents interpret our questions, and therefore collect data of questionable quality. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how cognitive interviews can be a useful method for improving the reliability and validity of surveys used in education research. The cognitive interviews described in this article reveal the complex thought processes in which our respondents engaged as they discussed their responses to questions concerning standards, assessments and professional development, and the unanticipated interpretations of seemingly straightforward constructs. We present a number of examples to illustrate complexities that education researchers face in trying to design large-scale surveys to answer critical educational policy questions, and the substantive insights that can be gained from the use of cognitive interviews. The use of cognitive interviews in the development of surveys has been for the most part neglected by the educational research community, and we suggest that more attention be paid to this methodology as a way of improving survey research.

A Primer on Effective Professional Development

Knitting together the qualities of high-quality professional learning and evaluating the results smartly can lead to improved student learning.

Are Teachers Who Need Sustained, Content-Focused Professional Development Getting It? An Administrator’s Dilemma

Purpose: Policymakers and administrators are increasingly focusing on professional development as a means to improve teaching quality. In this study, the authors examine whether professional development in mathematics is primarily performing an educative function by addressing weak teacher preparation, or a catalytic function by serving mainly teachers who already have a strong content knowledge of mathematics. Methods: The data used are from the teacher surveys completed for the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The analysis is conducted using multinomial logit results transformed into relative risk ratios that indicate the relative odds that a teacher will participate in sustained, medium-length or brief (mathematics)content-focused professional development. Findings: The results indicate that teachers with strong content knowledge in mathematics—measured by type of degree in mathematics and self-reported preparedness to teach different topics in mathematics—are more likely to take sustained content-focused professional development than teachers with weak content knowledge in mathematics. Thus, professional development is primarily serving teachers with already strong content area expertise in mathematics, rather than addressing content knowledge gaps for teachers less prepared to teach mathematics. Implications for Practice: Options for administrators include: (a) encourage teachers to take challenging professional development by scaffolding and matching activities to teachers’ level of expertise, (b) build links between the activities and the school’s vision, and(c) require teachers to take high-quality professional development. The most powerful but also the most challenging recommendation is for district and school administrators to stop providing low-quality, ineffective professional development.

Highly Qualified to Do What? The Relationship between NCLB Teacher Quality Mandates and the Use of Reform-Oriented Instruction in Middle School Mathematics.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) calls for a highly qualified teacher in every classroom. According to the legislation, “highly qualified” is defined as full certification, a bachelor’s degree, and demonstrated content knowledge in all core subjects taught. States, district, and schools are spending considerable resources addressing these provisions, but to what degree are the readily available measures of teacher qualifications associated with the type of teaching advocated by standards-based reform? The authors examine the relationships among educational credentials, preparedness to teach content, participation in professional development, and use of reform-oriented instruction by middle school mathematics teachers using data from the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Their analyses suggest that preparedness to teach mathematics content and participation in content-related professional development activities are associated with reform-oriented teaching, measured here as increased emphases on conceptual learning goals for students and increased use of reform-oriented teaching strategies.

Inquiry-oriented instruction in science: who teaches that way?

The expansion of the No Child Left Behind Act to include science standards and assessments is likely to refocus states’ attention on science teaching and learning. Requiring teachers to have subject majors and greater funding of professional development are two key policy levers for improving instruction in science. There has been relatively little work examining the characteristics of teachers who are most likely to initiate inquiry-oriented instruction in science classrooms. Using a nationally representative sample of the teachers of eighth grade science students, the authors found relatively strong associations between reform-oriented practice and the majors and degrees that teachers earned as part of their formal schooling, as well as their current levels of participation in content-oriented professional development activities.

Whole School Reform in a Low-Income African American Community The Effects of the CoZi Model on Teachers, Parents, and Students

This article reports the results of a 1-year evaluation of the CoZi model, a whole school reform model that combines Edward Zigler’s School of the 21st Century (which includes on-site, daylong, and year-round preschool, after-school care, and family support services) with James Comer’s School Development Program, a school management and collaborative decision-making model. The study used written surveys, in-depth interviews, achievement tests, and classroom observations to study teacher, parent, and preschool outcomes in a CoZi elementary school and a comparison school, both of which served predominately disadvantaged students. The CoZi school had significantly higher school climate and parent involvement throughout the year, but across-school changes and levels of achievement, parent-child interaction, parent social and psychological outcomes, and teacher efficacy were not significantly different.