This is truly excellent work—ERS has added clarity and alignment to all of our efforts. Our professional development strategy is no longer fuzzy. Their recommendations are clear and concrete. We know where we can find the resources. ERS has helped us move forward to take the next step for the children in our schoolhouses.
— Rosa
Blackwell, Superintendent,
Cincinnati Public Schools
Cincinnati Public Schools
Professional Development & School Support
Project Goals and Analysis
Upon becoming CPS Superintendent, Rosa Blackwell enlisted ERS to conduct a comprehensive review of professional development needs, spending, and activities in an effort to better integrate professional development activities with district-wide performance objectives. The recent analysis expanded upon many of the issues identified in an audit by ERS in 2000-2001, specifically the linking of professional development initiatives with comprehensive school reform.
Key activities have included:
- Conducting an assessment of district-level professional
development
needs and performance, mapping progress since ERS’s audit in 2000 - Creating a powerful inventory of current professional development activities and spending to understand the purpose, topics, skills, delivery, and target populations
- Outlining the professional development challenges, priorities, and strategies for the CPS community
- Contributing to, reviewing and critiquing a five-year professional development plan critical to strategy development and resource realignment
The analysis showed that:
- CPS has made a significant investment in professional development spending since 2000, nearly doubling spending in the K-12 operating budget
- Although CPS invests in potentially powerful ways, spending can be more strategically aligned to district priorities by focusing on fewer initiatives, clarifying roles of teacher leaders, ensuring consistency in the district coaching structure, supporting new principals, and linking teacher evaluation to individual teacher PD and teacher compensation
Based on these findings, ERS led three action teams around coaching, principal support, and whole school improvement (One Plan.) This work resulted in:
- A district coaching and mentoring model that uses the expertise of master teachers in schools to facilitate grade and content based teamwork around planning, practice, observation, and assessment of student work
- External coaching support to develop teacher leadership within schools
- Drafts defining the support and development needs of principals throughout their careers, outlining the short-term priorities, and fiscal and staffing requirements
Cincinnati has recently made a significant effort to establish clear standards for performance that are central to improved performance throughout the system. CPS is holding schools accountable to specific goals through:
- A comprehensive school planning template (One Plan) that revolves around a common set of standards and serves as a school-level accountability and planning tool
- School performance standards and rubrics for evaluating school progress against student achievement standards
See a copy of One Plan and the rubrics developed to help CPS schools meet these standards (PDF).