"Staff Development, Leadership, and Accountability" — An Interview with Beverley Showers

Hi, I'm Kathleen Burke, Director of ASCD's Annual Conference. Welcome to ASCD's Annual Conference Online 2002.

We are pleased to present a series of online programs that will preview topics and highlights of the 2002 Annual Conference. Joining us now from her home in California is Beverley Showers, who will be presenting a session at the conference on student achievement thorough staff development.

Beverley, what are the major issues influencing educators today?

I think the big one, the one you have to start with, is the development of state accountability systems that are tied to standards. And then the accompanying high-stakes testing programs, of course. But right behind that is the design and quality of staff development. So I think that that's one of the most critical issues facing educators right now, because staff development is the most powerful means we have for improving the quality of the teaching force, and for improving student achievement, and for responding to these state accountability requirements. But, in many cases, schools and districts and states even have staff development programs that lag about 50 years behind the type of program that we know is likely to impact teacher learning and student learning. I'm sure you know NSDC [National Staff Development Council] is making an effort with their revised standards for staff development to address this, but at the current time this is a huge issue. I can't really separate the state accountability systems and the staff development issue.

And then another issue that I think is huge is the development of learning communities at school sites, which is more a school site issue than a district- or state-level issue. The social climates of many schools mitigate against the kind of collective actions that you need to accomplish organizational change, and that's also tied to the accountability systems and the standards.

And then that brings up another issue, which is leadership, and while it's critical again at the state and district levels, it's really critical at the school levels, because that's where school climate is impacted and where the ability to make change is really crucial. Those issues — I would say the state accountability systems and then staff development systems and leadership and the design of learning communities at school sites — are the ones that I see as most crucial for educators today.

Beverley, what do you plan on sharing with the ASCD Annual Conference audience during your presentation?

My colleague and I, Bruce Joyce, will be talking about staff development and its link to student achievement. And we'll argue that staff development is a powerful means for accomplishing school improvement. And we're going to focus on cases in which staff development has driven really significant teacher and student growth and look at the commonalities in those programs so that we can leave people with the message that there's definitely hope, that it's do-able, it has been done in multiple cases, and that there are common elements to all of those successful programs where students really benefited.

The really successful programs focus on curriculum and instruction. They select content carefully that's aligned with their goals. And, of course, they are able to build communities around those goals and to engage in collective action, so you don't have these splintered groups going off in lots of different directions. There really is some sense of organizational cohesion.

And then there's intensive staff development, and it's clearly targeted right at the goals that the staff has agreed upon. And then there's the study of implementation. They are actually able to do what Rosenholtz called "engage in plan change." They are able to act on their goals and not just set goals and then splinter. And then there's a community of inquiry. They really study the impact on students of what they do and are able to make adjustments as they go along. So it goes without saying that there's pretty good leadership up and down the line, both teacher leaders and principals and district support. So I don't mean to make that sound impossible, but there are plenty of cases where those things have come into play, and students invariably benefit when that happens.

How does health impact student achievement?

Learning requires incredibly high levels of energy on the parts of both students and teachers. So the need for good health is a prerequisite. I had a colleague at the university once who came back in, and he'd been visiting all of these cooperating teachers, or potential cooperating teachers, and he was discouraged because of the numbers of teachers he had observed sitting behind their desks. And he said he just didn't understand how anything could happen. And he said perhaps what we should have as our first prerequisite for selecting cooperating teachers is how long does it take them to do a mile? He said they just don't have the energy to be with kids all day, you know. I mean, it's such a trite story, but it's always stuck with me, and that was 25 or 30 years ago.

Thank you, Beverley. And thanks to our Internet audience for tuning in to one of a series of online programs previewing the ASCD's 2002 Annual Conference in San Antonio. Before you leave this site, take a few minutes to visit the ASCD Annual Conference web page for the latest conference updates. I'm Kathleen Burke.