Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Professional Growth: Defining the What, Why, Who, and How
What Is Professional Growth?
What Is a Professional Growth Plan?
What Is the Professional Growth Plan Process?
Why Use the Professional Growth Plan Process?
Who Can Use a Growth Plan?
Who Can Lead the Professional Growth Plan Process?
How to Implement the Professional Growth Plan Process Successfully
Encouraging New Traditions in Professional Growth
2. Managing the Professional Growth Plan Process
Operational Issues
Allocating Resources
Available Resources vs. Needs? - A Balancing Act
Who Has the Time?
Organizing People, Events, and Information
Forms? - How Can They Help?
Introducing the Process to Staff
The School Leader as Coach and Advisor
3. Identifying Areas for Professional Growth
The First of Four Phases
Targeting Professional Growth
Conducting a Personal Needs Assessment
Comparing Current Practices to Established Professional Performance Standards/Best Practice Research
Review and Understand Professional Performance Standards and Best Practices Research
The Self-Assessment Activity
Examining Relevant Student Performance Data
Facilitating Data Analysis
Linking Practice and Performance
Addressing Deficiencies and Discrepancies
Needs - Assessment and the School Leader
The Needs - Assessment Conference
The Needs Assessment Conference Record
4. Designing the Professional Growth Plan
The Second Phase: Plan Design
Guiding the Design Process
Establishing Professional Goals
Establishing Learner-Centered Goals
Can Goals Change?
Establishing the Questions
Creating the Essential Question
Creating Related Questions
Designing an Action Plan
Identifying Modes of Documentation
Documentation: A Product and a Process
Identifying Baseline Data
Defining Methods of Evaluation
Identifying Resource Needs
Choosing a Method for Sharing Results With the Learning Community
Finalizing the Growth Plan
5. Professional Growth Plans in Progress
Implementation and Monitoring
Monitoring the Process
Formal Monitoring: Progress Meetings
Informal Monitoring: Listening, Watching, Visiting
Deciding What Is Not Working and Why
Interim Sharing: What Has Happened so Far?
Troubleshooting? What Happens If. . . .
Preparing for the Final Phase
6. Completing the Growth Plan Process
Plan Evaluation
Growth Plan Summary Activities
Summarizing the Growth Plan Experience? What Happened?
The Growth Plan Summary Conference
Evaluating Documentation of Professional Growth
Sharing With the Learning Community
Wrapping Up the Professional Growth Plan Process
7. The Process Continues
Second Generation Plans and Beyond
Impediments to the Process
Changes in Personnel
Inconsistent Implementation
Lack of Administrative Support
The Demands of Compliance Directives and Documentation
The Professional Growth Plan Process Is School Improvement
The School Leader as Mechanic and Change Agent
Appendix A: School Leader Blacklines
Appendix B: Participant Blacklines
References
Index