Division H Professional Development Committee

Submitted by: Committee co-chairs, Rolf Blank, Teresa Duncan  

[Revised June 17, 2015]

The Professional Development (PD) Committee of AERA Division H works to plan, organize, and deliver professional development to H members and interested education researchers and evaluators.  In the past year the PD Committee convened two events for Division H:

• At the 2015 annual meeting a pre-conference full-day course was organized and accepted by AERA and 50 members participated.  A team of school district research and evaluation leaders from Wake County Public Schools, NC, provided a model for professional development based on their experience in preparing district and school leaders to build their skills and knowledge in analysis and use of educational data for decision-making in schools.

• Division H with assistance from REL Mid-Atlantic organized a webinar in 2015 targeted to assessment directors, state and district leaders, and school principals on understanding and communicating the implications of new state assessments being implemented in relation to Common Core State Standards and other state standards, and particularly the transitions in reporting, analysis and interpretation of assessment results.   The recent webinar focused on the strategy and results of New York City’s successful plan for preparing schools and communities for the use of new state assessments linked to the Common Core Standards, and over 150 members registered for the webinar.

The Professional Development Committee comprised of volunteer members of Division H will work with the other leaders of Division H and AERA to plan and carry out similar events each year that focus on developing the knowledge and skills of members related to developments and issues in school education research, program evaluation, and assessment.  AERA members who have an interest in working with the Committee should contact the current chairs, Rolf Blank ([email protected]) or Teresa Duncan ([email protected]).  

Further information

For the 2015 Division H pre-conference course on Improving Skills of School Leaders on Use of Data in Decision-Making, access the video recording:  http://media01.commpartners.com/AERA/2015_Annual_Conf/PDC07/archive.html.  Also, the presentations and handouts can be accessed:  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g2or4u2vo7225zd/AADG-lScIeBTt1SUz4q0pR3Ea?dl=0

To access information and a recording of the Webinar on Strategies for Communicating Results with Common Core-linked Assessments, click on https://www.relmidatlantic.org/content/strategies-communicating-results-using-change-common-core-linked-assessments-enhance