Professional development plays an essential role in successful education improvement. Professional development serves as the bridge between where prospective and experienced educators are now and where they will need to be to meet the new challenges of guiding all students in achieving higher standards of learning and development.  Professional development activities must be designed with the input of teachers, principals, and other personnel, and must meet a variety of technical standards. Specifically, they must:
 

• be tied to state content and student performance standards;
• reflect current research on teaching and learning;
• be designed to have a positive impact on the teacher’s performance in the classroom;
• contribute to continuous improvement in the classroom or throughout the school;
• include methods to teach children with special needs;
• be developed with extensive participation of teachers; and
• include gender-equitable education methods, techniques, and practices.

No Child Left Behind Act funds have been made available through Title II Part D (ED TECH) that can be used for staff development.  This funding has been divided up among the fifteen schools and each school's allocation is listed in the table above.  For a school to use these funds to obtain staff development a brief but realistic plan on how this funding will be used to provide effective staff development at the school level must be developed.  The plan should be developed as a team effort by the school's principal, technology committee, and the TST serving the school.  Plan must be submitted on the Internet as a web page and an access link provided.  Allocations of schools that do not submit plans will be used to make staff development improvements at the district level. Deadline for schools to submit plans will be January 1st,  2003.

The goal(s) of the plan should be at least one of the following and be stated in the plan:

Provide staff development that will help teachers improve student academic achievement through the use of technology in elementary schools and secondary schools

Provide staff development that will help teachers assist students in crossing the digital divide by ensuring that they are technologically literate by the time they finish the eighth grade

Provide staff development that will ensure that teachers are able to integrate technology into the curriculum to improve student achievement

Plan must also include the following:

• Indication of the contact person that will be responsible for the plan and its execution.

 
• Identification of the Focus of the staff development that will be provided with this funding and an explanation of why this particular focus was chosen.

 
• A detailed budget breakdown of how the allocated amount will be spent.  No budget may exceed the allocated amount.  Budget categories to be used are as follows:

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

  71100    195,201,212    Substitutes (43.06 per day)

   72210    308    Consultants
   72210    355    Travel
   72210    457    Inservice/Staff Development
   72210    499   Staff Development Supplies and Materials
 

• An action plan depicting the timeline to be used during the year to provide the staff development and accomplish the goal(s).

 
• Explanation of what type of assessment will be used to determine the effectiveness of the staff development at the end of the school year.  Results are to be published on the Internet.

Each plan submitted must be approved by the district technology coordinator.  The system's advisory committee will be utilized whenever possible to determine if a plan warrants approval.

Once approved, the contact person will work with Myra Darnell at the central office to complete requisitions.  Myra will not make any purchases until a school's plan has been approved and authorized by the technology coordinator to be processed.

Professional development plays an essential role in successful education improvement. Professional development serves as the bridge between where prospective and experienced educators are now and where they will need to be to meet the new challenges of guiding all students in achieving higher standards of learning and development.

Professional development activities must be designed with the input of teachers, principals, and other personnel, and must meet a variety of technical standards. Specifically, they must:

           be tied to state content and student performance standards;
           reflect current research on teaching and learning;
           be designed to have a positive impact on the teacher’s performance in the classroom;
           contribute to continuous improvement in the classroom or throughout the school;
           include methods to teach children with special needs;
           be developed with extensive participation of teachers; and
           include gender-equitable education methods, techniques, and practices.

State education agencies are responsible for reviewing the local education agencies’ professional development plans and providing technical assistance for LEAs whose professional development plans fail to meet these standards.

Greene County schools will use Title II Part D formula funds for professional development in the integration of advanced technologies, including emerging technologies, into curricula and instruction and in using those technologies to create new learning environments, such as professional development in the use of technology

• to access data and resources to develop curricula and instructional materials;
• to enable teachers
• to use the Internet and other technology to communicate with parents, other teachers, principals, and administrators
• to retrieve Internet-based learning resources;
• to lead to improvements in classroom instruction in the core academic subjects, that effectively prepare students to meet challenging State academic content standards including increasing student technology literacy, and student academic achievement standards.