Posted by:
Shirley Hord
K-12 Classroom teacher
Austin, TX

Topic:
Define Expected Outcomes

Message:

The first response to this is to say that it is not sufficient to gather "happiness coefficients" from participants. My take on staff development is that it is expected not only to satisfy participants, but, more than that, it is to change the participants in some way(s): their knowledge, skills, attitudes, etc. Thus, the first step in determining if staff development works is to identify the change that is desired -- what is the new skill or content/knowledge, for instance, that we wish to produce by the staff development. While this seems reasonably straightforward, it seems all too frequently missing. Too often the desired outcomes are fuzzy and ill-defined -- in which case, it will be very difficult to make a judgment about whether the staff development worked.

If the goal is increased knowledge or understandings or insights, an end-of-session paper and pencil measure could be taken. If skills and behaviors are the hoped-for results, then interviews with the participants and/or classroom observations would be in order.

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