TDAP

Claim: In service of impacting student achievement, GCCS has developed and refined the structure for professional development to promote teacher growth and collegial collaboration.

Teacher Development Accountability Process (TDAP)

During the past five years, GCCS has developed and refined its Teacher Development Accountability Process (TDAP). The primary goal of this process is to help teachers continue to grow as professionals. We believe this process: provides teachers with clear descriptors of what exemplary teaching looks like at GCCS; helps teachers identify specific areas of strength and opportunities for growth; helps teachers track their growth; enables ongoing support for growth; encourages collegial discussion and collaboration; and adds a measure of accountability.

In the beginning of the TDAP structure, teachers had the flexibility to choose a goal that could be aligned to staff-wide focus areas and/or student achievement, but did not have to be aligned to these. Instructional Coaching was also a separate form of PD. In these early years, it became apparent that there were too many varied goals that prevented us from concentrating on improved professional practice and too many disparate coaching demands. Simply stated, it was not sustainable.

In efforts to streamline Professional Development and make stronger impact on student achievement, TDAP is now aligned to the focus areas and structures are deeply embedded into professional practice in service of student achievement. Teachers work in PLCs and instructional coaching has transitioned into a peer-coaching model. This is a model that better meets teachers' needs and as a result, meets students' needs. The accountability has increased as well. Professional staff reflect on their efforts, write a letter summarizing the effects of their professional learning to our Board of Trustees, and they present to their professional peers during the end of year evaluation.

Each year, GCCS’ Workplan has become a larger working document that aligns with and gives purpose to staff professional development. This has enhanced teachers’ productivity which has promoted student achievement. For instance, as part of GCCS’ multi-year goal within Mastery of Knowledge and Skills, teachers spent three years developing their own ELA modules aligned to the NYS Common Core Standards as well as our expeditions. These modules have targeted strong ELA instruction and student performance in ELA has increased 12 percentage points based on these efforts.

Sample ELA Module & Expedition Plans

These pieces of evidence are included to support the impact made from aligned staff-wide focus areas with TDAP goals. During the 2014-2015, 2015-2016, 2016-2017, and 2017-2018 school years, teachers focused their attention on ELA structures and curriculum aligned with Expedition Plans. They used the four Ts (Targets, Tasks, Texts, and Topic) and their understanding of structures such as Close Reads (and Read Alouds), Language Dives, and "Read, Think, Talk, Write" to explicitly teach literacy within and in service to Expeditions.