 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Educational reformers argue that reform efforts must be more school centered. This emphasis, however, meets a barrier in districts where staff development is district driven. Although such district awareness and skill-building programs have their place within a comprehensive professional learning program, more attention today is being directed at helping schools meet their specific goals for improved student learning. In a best of all possible worlds scenario, Cleveland City Schools has a strategic plan that provides common direction for the district as a whole. Each school then develops its own long-range plan that addresses both its contributions to the district’s plan and the challenges that may be unique to that school. In turn, the professional learning staff develops a plan that assists both the district and the schools in reaching their goals. Each individual school has a School Leadership Team which meets with the district supervisors monthly to review district goals, analyze school data, write school improvement plans with goals to address specific schools needs and plan professional learning around the needs of each school. The Cleveland City Schools professional learning department monitors the school improvement plans for each school. It looks for trends and issues across campuses and clusters schools that have similar needs and staff development plans. The department views itself as a facilitator of the learning of all adults in the school district. When all the adults are learning and growing there is a greater likelihood that students will also be learning and growing. We believe that when each adult sees himself or herself as the number-one learner, we will achieve what we should achieve through professional learning.
|