PD Committee Authority

The PD Committee is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the WPS PD System, developing and revising policies to support quality implementation, and for using data and other feedback to make adjustments to increase the impact of our PD System on equity and excellence for each and every Waltham student.

The Assistant Superintendent will play an important role in the PD Committee to ensure coordination of professional learning in sync with other initiatives. For example, while the PD Committee will use data to identify equity-focused PD topic strands each spring, and its members will solicit feedback from their school ILTs on these strands, the Assistant Superintendent will synthesize these ideas with data received in the summer to define a district vision in time for ALI. At ALI, school teams will further review their own data to develop QSPs aligned to the district vision. In fall, the Assistant Superintendent will ensure ILTs are prepared to support alignment of educators’ goals and school PD plans with the school QSP.

Other relevant roles of the Assistant Superintendent tied to the PD Committee include approving Individualized PD requests and study group proposals based on the PD Committee’s guidelines, ensuring all PD providers received double PDPs, and communicating success stories with the community about what educators are learning. Ultimately, the Assistant Superintendent is accountable for the decisions of this committee, and therefore is the final decision-maker. The Assistant Superintendent and PD committee will agree to continue the conversation about the types of decisions that are within the purview of the PD committee. All permanent WPS educators are eligible and encouraged to apply for a position on the PD Committee.