School Type: Public	School Setting: Rural
Level: Elementary	School Design: Traditional
Content Presented By:
National Awards Program for Model Professional Development

Summary

The practice: Professional development should be continuous and on-going, involving follow-up and support for further learning, including support from sources external to the school that can provide necessary resources and new perspectives.

• Before the program 0 part-time teacher helpers were available, now 24 of them tutor students in classrooms.
• Parent visitation grew from sparse to 100% involvement
• Coaching sessions from the Northern Arizona Writing Project
• Teaching assistants from a local college
• Local universities offer graduate courses at the school site during after-school hours
• Partnership with six universities and college programs
• Three-year individual professional plans developed for all new teachers

Ganado Intermediate School, in northeastern Arizona within the Navajo Nation, serves 515 students in grades 3-5. Its student population, almost completely American Indian, provides rich opportunities for the majority Anglo staff to learn about and integrate Navajo culture and language into the curriculum.

Teachers at Ganado Intermediate School have benefited from a wide base of support, coaching, and expertise. Ganado teachers, even though geographically remote, have strong partnerships and connections with a number of outside agencies that support ongoing teacher professional development.

A representative of the Northern Arizona Writing Project frequently visits the school to conduct demonstration lessons, coaching sessions, or co-teaching with teachers at the school who have participated in the summer institutes. A local college has established an undergraduate program for teaching assistants at Ganado so that teachers have ready access to what is going on in "real classrooms." Local universities offer course at the school, and many teachers have earned additional endorsements and master's degrees. To facilitate their implementation of CLIP, Ganado has established a special partnership with the Tempe School District, the district that pioneered the program. As a member of the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College in Vermont's Rural Network; teachers have regular contacts with faculty at Bread Loaf and other schools within the network.

These partnerships provide a constant stream of support and follow-up opportunities for teachers at Ganado. Teachers enjoy easy access to experts who provide support and follow-up to them in their own classrooms. The ongoing follow-up, support, and flow of new information to teachers maintains a focus on continuous improvement.

This site also exemplifies the following practice(s):

• Professional development should involve teachers in the identification of what they need to learn and in the development of the learning experiences in which they will be involved.  
• Professional development should be connected to a comprehensive change process focused on improving student learning.  

  [Top]   [Next]

This resource is developed and maintained by The Education Alliance at Brown University. Seed funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Education. Send comments to: loom@alliance.brown.edu