by Debbie Yonke, Coordinator, Quality Assurance in Learning
Learning Forward is an international association of learning educators who are committed to professional learning to improve schools and student learning. In one of their 2010 publications entitled "Why Professional Development Matters" Distinguished Senior Fellow at Learning Forward, Hayes Mizell, discusses the importance of professional learning to any field, but specifically how professional learning can impact student achievement.
Professional development refers to many types of educational experiences related to an individual's work. Doctors, lawyers, educators, accountants, engineers, and people in a wide variety of professions and businesses participate in professional development to learn and apply new knowledge and skills that will improve their performance on the job.
Many fields require members to participate in ongoing learning approved by the profession, sometimes as a requirement for keeping their jobs. Professionals often also voluntarily seek new learning.
In education, research has shown that teaching quality and school leadership are the most important factors in raising student achievement. For teachers and school and district leaders to be as effective as possible, they continually expand their knowledge and skills to implement the best educational practices. Educators learn to help students learn at the highest levels.
In Springfield Public Schools we strive to offer high quality professional learning to meet the needs of both staff and students. Our core focus is Site Professional Learning Systems (SPLS) where key learning is embedded at the site level. In addition to this, we are happy to announce the expansion of our summer learning opportunities to provide additional choices for you to deepen your learning in areas that are of interest to you and which have a positive impact on student achievement. We encourage you to review this summer's offerings using the link below and consider attending with another teacher or team from your site to expand your impact. Summer Professional Learning Opportunities
