TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Joint Committee to Develop a Master Plan for Education established a Professional Personnel Development (PPD) Working Group to provide recommendations to achieve the following goals:
The Working Group also examined ways the state could ensure that (1) students and schools with the greatest challenges have access to the best teachers and administrators, and (2) teacher preparation programs fully train teachers in subject matter and pedagogy.
This report from the Working Group first provides definitions for what constitutes teacher quality, administrator quality and the usefulness of a credential. Teacher quality is defined as a continuous process throughout a teacher’s career that is not solely determined by a credential or degree. Essential qualities for a teacher to be considered initially qualified include: subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, commitment to professional collaboration, ability to use student data, belief that all children can achieve, and ability to reflect on his or her own teaching. Essential qualities for initially qualified principals include: demonstrated teaching effectiveness and ability to supervise instruction, ability to use data to make decisions, strong leadership skills, ability to effectively manage financial and human resources, and ability to communicate effectively with a diverse range of constituents. Finally, the PPD workgroup recommended that credentials be retained for K–12 personnel as indicators of initial preparation and competence in the above areas.
In describing the context of K–12 professional personnel development in California, this report highlights five key issues: inadequate teacher quality in low-performing schools, inadequate teacher professional development, lack of teacher diversity, lagging teacher compensation, and the increasing difficulty of recruiting and retaining skilled administrators. The section that follows lays out in charts the details of recent initiatives important concerning teacher recruitment, preparation and professional development.
In a separate higher education section, this report describes five key issues concerning professional personnel development: the need for new faculty, improving teaching quality and student learning at colleges and universities, changing patterns of faculty hiring, development of community college leadership, and expansion of education doctorates.
The PPD Working Group proposes 14 major recommendations for professional personnel development—the first three concern state and regional issues, recommendations four through nine are regarding K–12, and recommendations ten through fourteen deal with higher education.
State/Regional Issues
K–12 Professional Personnel Development
Higher Education Professional Personnel Development
| Table of Contents | |||
| Summary | Introduction | K-12 | Responses |
| Recommendations | Colleges | References | Members |