Given the difficult economic times that we find ourselves, I am certain that many school systems are working to reduce budgets. One of the first budget items to be reduced is usually professional development and travel. School superintendents are always quick to point out that the last place we want to impact is the classroom. However, quite often the reduction of professional development will certainly have long-term impacts on the classroom practices of teachers which in turn will have a negative impact on student learning.

With that said, it is very important that a school system have processes in place to measure the impact of professional development. In our school system we utilize software developed for that purpose. We can track the impact of professional development at several levels. We can determine the satisfaction of teachers and principals with a particular professional development course or workshop. We can then track to what degree the teacher or principal actually deployed the strategies from the professional development and we can monitor the level of fidelity with which the teacher or principal actually implemented the strategies. Finally, we measure the impact of the strategies on student learning or operational outcomes that the strategy was intended to impact. Through this methodology, we can actually see of the professional development strategies are providing our school system with a return on investment.

Speaking of investment, one of the best professional development activities for the money is the annual National Quality for Education Conference hosted by the American Society for Quality. I attend a lot of conferences and if I have to make budget decisions about which to eliminate, this will be the last one to eliminate. Why? The participation is a cross section of the country and the world. The participants include teachers, principals, central office administrators, school board members, college professors, and consultants. With this variety of participants, our school system can network with many school districts across the nation and identify possible benchmark school systems. We can hear concerns from the teacher level to the school board member level and find out possible solutions for the work we are doing. We like to send a team of participants from teacher to superintendent to ensure we get a variety of opinions about best practices and possible benchmark school systems. We have been attending the conference for at least 8 years and find the conference to be an important tool in our work with continuous improvement. I encourage readers to look at the 2009 conference to be held in Jacksonville, Florida in October, 2009. I hope to see you there.