What If the Problem Isn’t the Teacher-but the Training?  

The quality of teaching within schools has an important bearing on students’ ability to learn. Therefore, it is vital for schools to have systems which support teachers and their leaders in improving their professionalism, motivation and continuing development. But the question is: How can schools offer their teachers and leaders effective professional support if they do not know what their strengths and areas of improvement are? Can there be professional issues related to the educators themselves or can those issues relate to the type of professional development the educators received?

The use of a Professional Development Capacity Audit (PDCA), offers a pragmatic answer to these questions. A systematic audit of teachers’, and school leaders’, knowledge, skills, competencies, experience and professional learning needs allows educational leaders to determine strengths; identify capacity gaps; and design targeted professional development that assists in supporting school improvements. In essence, the PDCA ensures that professional development is evidence-based and not based upon assumptions.

When Should a Capacity Audit Be Conducted?

A Professional Development Capacity Audit should ideally be completed at the start of each academic year so that the findings can serve as a basis for the school’s professional development plan. A capacity audit may need to be completed at other significant periods, such as:

1. When there is a curricular change.
2. When schools begin using new assessments or technology.
3. When schools utilize inclusive instructional strategies.
4. When student achievement data continue to reveal persistent achievement gaps or decline(s).

As a matter of fact, when capacity audits are completed annually, they give School Leaders the opportunity to reflect on their teachers’ development and assess the impact of prior professional development programs. Most important, completing a capacity audit with regularity provides School Leaders with a high degree of confidence that all members of their staff possess the necessary skills/competences to effectively implement a broad-based school-wide improvement plan.

 How Should It Be Conducted?

School capacity audits need to be organized, collaborative and based on evidence. The leader of the school needs to establish the rationale behind the audit as well as evaluate the competency level of each teacher in relation to the curriculum content they will teach, national standards for teaching, and school objectives. All data collected for the audit needs to be collected through various means such as self assessments by teachers, classroom visits/observations, teacher interviews, sample lessons or units (lesson plans), teacher evaluations, student achievement data, surveys of both students and staff, and data generated during Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). A thorough analysis of all the data collected needs to highlight what is working well (strengths) and what areas are needing support (capacity gap areas) that could lead to some form of coaching/mentoring/collaboration. The findings of this study should direct a specific professional development plan which can be implemented and measured with respect to its effectiveness on enhancing teaching practice and student learning.

Contribution to School Improvement

The Professional Development Capacity Audit makes key contributions to school development:

• It provides evidence based professional development as opposed to being driven by assumptions. Therefore, when developing training for staff at schools, there is confidence that they will be addressing actual needs of teachers for learning.
• It enhances teacher’s ability to develop instruction. By supporting teachers’ skills in implementing curriculum, differentiating lessons for students, assessing student progress, managing classrooms effectively, using technology within the classroom, and providing inclusive instruction, teacher’s instructional quality is enhanced.
• It develops a culture of ongoing professional learning. As a result, teachers are more likely to take an active role in identifying what they need to learn, reflect on their practice, and collaborate with colleagues to enhance their teaching practices.
• Internal capacity is developed; this includes coaching, mentoring, and Professional Learning Communities. This reduces reliance on outside facilitators, and builds the capacity within schools to provide support for professional development.
• Resource utilization is improved. If budget or funding limitations exist, can the schools continue to utilize resources on training without knowing if the identified training needs were the ones to address?
• The audit serves as a baseline from which schools may measure professional growth and evaluate the impact of professional development programs.

Recommendations

In order to provide teachers with better access to meaningful professional development experiences, schools need to focus on making their professional development more focused (targeted) to meet teacher’s needs and based upon research (evidence). As a result of this goal, there is the need to:

• Integrate the Professional Development Capacity Audit in the school’s annual school improvement plan.
• Provide training to school administrators to use the Professional Development Capacity Audit and understand the results from the audit.
• Promote teacher self-assessment and reflection as part of an ongoing process for identifying actual professional learning opportunities.
• Strengthen teacher professional development through ongoing Professional Learning Communities, Coaching, and Mentoring so that professional growth is sustained after a workshop experience.
• Support financially, technologically, administratively and otherwise any professional development priority identified by the school staff.
• Regularly monitor and evaluate professional development as it occurs through classroom observations, teacher reflections, student achievement data, and performance evaluations.
• Base professional development decision-making on audit findings instead of assumptions or generalizations.

Conclusion

Professional Development Capacity Audits can be used by educational administrators and institutions to create long term improvements within their educational environments. The audits allow schools to develop their professional development plans based on data collected rather than on assumption.  A Professional Development Capacity Audit also allows educators to determine what each of its’ employees have learned/are capable of doing and/or where they need additional training. This information is then utilized by school administrators to develop appropriate professional development plan for those who require it so that the educator will be able to improve his/her instruction.

As such, an audit can take professional development away from being simply a procedural or bureaucratic exercise and transform it into a proactive strategy for enhancing the quality of education delivered to students.