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Thompson, Ellen A.

College of Education and Social Services

2007

Ed. D.

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) has put more pressure on schools to increase the quality of instruction for all students. Specifically, the area of literacy achievement remains an area of concern as NCLB is clear that all children should have a "...fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging state achievement standards and state academic assessments" (No Child Left Behind Act of 2001,2002). Performance profiles of upper elementary students reveal that those who performed at or above standard on primary grade level measures do not always maintain that level of performance at grade four. Professional development is used as a response to this challenge. Most teachers agree that the traditional approach for professional development does not work (Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, & Yoon, 2001). Too often, these one-day affairs make no real connection to classroom practice. Research suggests that professional development should be closer to the actual classroom context; engaging teachers over time with the content of literacy and the content of teaching pedagogy (Garet, et al., 2001 ; Putnam & Borko, 2000; Sparks, 1983). Currently, there is a limited selection of descriptive literature on the work of the situated professional development provider. The purpose of this study was to fill the gap in the research by providing an analysis of two professional developers involved in the work of school change. Specifically, they were working with teachers in the upper-elementary grades of three-six with a focus on strengthening the knowledge and teaching practices needed for improved literacy instruction. These professional development providers and teachers were part of a literacy change initiative. Data was collected using field observations and interviews. An inductive case analysis approach was used to interpret the data. The data were examined through an open-ended exploration to fully understand its full dimension. The use of a composite narrative structure was employed to display this information.
Results reveal that the work of these professional development providers is specifically related to the school contexts. Professional development providers assume multiple roles within each school. A school's individual culture, patterns and physical layout of the school impact the work. The professional development providers' use of collaborative and inquiry-based approaches with the teachers helped to stress the importance of the assessed needs of students over time. An implication for further study will be to explore the connections between the use of inquiry-based response techniques to create teacher and school change and the eventual development of school-based professional learning communities to sustain the change.