5.3 PROGRAM EVALUATION

Candidates design and implement program evaluations to determine the overall effectiveness of professional learning on deepening teacher content knowledge, improving teacher pedagogical skills and/or increasing student learning. 

The Infinite Campus Training Survey was completed by me after a training that I led with a colleague two school years ago. I created this survey to find out how our colleagues felt about the training we facilitated.

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This artifact demonstrates mastery of standard 5.3: candidates design and implement program evaluations to determine the overall effectiveness of professional learning on deepening teacher content knowledge, improving teacher pedagogical skills and/or increasing student learning. A few years ago Dekalb County Schools rolled out a new student information system, Infinite Campus, throughout the entire county. I, along with one other teacher, was chosen by my principal to attend the county training, learn the new system, and then train the teachers at my school on it. After we conducted our training for the staff I developed this survey. We sent it out to the staff in order to determine if the training was helpful to them. We wanted to ensure that if they felt the training was ineffective we could revisit it. We knew how important the staff's ability to use this new software was, and wanted to ensure they felt comfortable doing that. Developing this survey shows that I am aware of the importance of having teachers evaluate the professional development they receive. It also demonstrates that I know how to do just that. I am also aware of the importance of ensuring that professional learning is effective in improving teacher pedagogical skills and student learning. One way to do that is to simply conduct classroom observations after a training has been completed. A checklist could be used in order to focus on certain components. This is a great way to really see if the training was effective at improving teacher practices and student learning. It would be even better to conduct a classroom observation before the training and after. The same checklist could be used for both observations. This would be a very effective way of measuring the effectiveness of the professional development session. 

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Creating this survey, and evaluating the results, taught me that I really can do anything I set my mind to. When my principal chose me to learn this new software and then roll it out to our school I was very nervous about my ability to do that. However, after looking at the results of this survey I saw that most teachers thought the training was very effective, and that helped me see how capable I am. One thing I would change about this artifact is I would ask teachers to put their names on it. I kept it anonymous on purpose, as I thought this would increase the likelihood of teachers being completely honest. However, since it was anonymous, I was not able to follow up with the teachers who did not get as much out of the training in order to help them one on one with the new software. 

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This survey had an impact on faculty development, specifically my own professional development. The training I conducted had an impact on the entire faculty's professional development, but the survey impacted my own. It really impacted my confidence in my abilities, and encouraged me to try more leadership roles at my school. This gave me the opportunity to improve as a teacher. This impact can be measured by observing the continued impact I have on students and other teachers throughout my career.