Looking for professional development created by folks who know what's really going on in schools? Check out these innovative programs involving NEA members across the country.

Leading the State Board

New Jersey's Professional Teaching Standards Board plays a central role in developing continuing education programs for teaching staff, and it doesn't play this role from on high. That's because 10 of the 19 board members are teachers, and they're well grounded on the needs of real educators.

"This is a new vision for professional development," says board member Cheryl Johnson, a speech and language specialist at Roosevelt School Number 7 in Gar-field. "I've been teaching for 22 years, and this is the first time I've had a true say in how I can improve my own skills to improve student performance-and help other teachers do the same."

"I feel this is the most important thing I've ever done," says board member Sue Heinis, a librarian at West Essex Senior High School in North Caldwell. "If I had to give up everything else I'm doing, I'd keep serving on this board." Heinis adds that her enthusiasm is based in part on the board's swift progress.

"In the two years since the board was created, we've not only agreed on professional development standards, but we've tailored those standards to meet what teachers say is their most urgent priority: helping students to master the state core curriculum content standards," Heinis notes.

These state standards require all students to master uniform subject areas, and, says Johnson, teachers are particularly concerned about improving their own knowledge of the core curriculum.

"What the Teaching Standards Board learned by surveying teachers and listening to its own teacher members is that we want to align our own content knowledge with the content standards," says Johnson. "In the past, our concerns might have gone unheeded. But now we have a place at the table, and the other board members listened to us."

"We're trying to work differently, collaborating with administrators, parents, and others to solve student problems," says Vicki Duff, a teacher at East Dover Elementary School in Toms River and chair of the Teaching Standards Board. "So far, we're succeeding beyond everyone's expectations. We've not only helped shape development standards, but we've expanded the realm of how teachers can meet them-such as through study groups, mentoring, and peer counseling, rather than through an exclusive regimen of coursework."

The board was created in part by former New Jersey School Superinten-dent Leo Klagholz, who'd long heard teachers complain of being left out of the professional development loop. To ensure that the board gave teachers a real voice, he worked closely with the New Jersey Education Association.

The new standards set by the board call on teachers to participate in 100 clock hours of professional development every five years. The plan is being implemented across the state by smaller boards-on which teachers are also heavily represented-at the county and school district levels.

-Matt Simon

Academy for Support Professionals

When the Wisconsin Education Association Council created its Professional Development Academy in 1992, school secretary Joyce Jones continually stressed the need to include ESPs in the professional development certificate programs.

She succeeded, and today some 5,000 education support professionals have already completed the program. Courses-suggested by members themselves-cover areas such as effective communication, nonviolent crisis intervention, and legal rights and responsibilities.

"We need many of the same skills as teachers," says Jones, who served on the academy's original board. "The bus driver is down the street, the teacher's aide is on the playground, but they're both with the kids, and how they react to a situation can affect a child as much as a teacher's reaction. Professional development is a must for all school employees."

"I would recommend this program to all ESPs," says recent participant Crystal Hearvey, a paraprofessional at Townsend Street School in Milwaukee. "Every day in the classroom, ESPs face situations with students that, at one time, only teachers were trained to deal with. The program has not only made me feel more confident in those situations, but it's unifying ESPs-making us feel more like we're part of the overall education picture." The program has received accolades from Wisconsin's school districts, two of which are now offering pay incentives to ESPs who have earned the certificate.

"It's done a lot to make us feel like professionals," says Hearvey. "Anywhere you go in the state, you know that your training will be looked on as something of value by a school." "ESPs have traditionally been underserved-left out of too many programs open to teachers," says WEAC staffer Debra Berndt, the program's director. "To be part of something that recognizes their importance is wonderful. And it's been a union success story in quality professional growth."

-M.S.

At the Top of Her Game

When you're at the top of your game, what motivates you to stay there? For veteran teacher Michelle Covarrubias, it was National Board Certification.

"I've been training others for years," says Covarrubias, an ESL teacher in an inner-city school district in South Phoenix, Arizona, "but there was no growth for me. With no money in the district to send me anywhere, I wondered, 'What's pushing me to stay on top?'"

Covarrubias found out about National Board Certification when the Arizona Education Association held an informational meeting. She learned about the Exemplary Teacher's Cadre-a joint initiative of AEA, Arizona State University, and the Bank of America that provides stipends and technical support to teachers who want to pursue the process.

"It's taking a deep look at your teaching, reflecting about what is good, and adjusting what you're doing to make sure you're meeting national teaching standards effectively," says Covarrubias.
Simply put, National Board Certification seeks to define what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do to maximize student learning. Can-didates participate in a rigorous, standards-based performance assessment that takes up to seven months and 400 hours to complete and costs $2,300. Yet it's an idea Covarrubias hopes will take off in poor districts such as her own.

"Teachers in poor districts often feel devalued," she says. "Certification affirms: 'Here we are, and we're good at what we do.'" Covarrubias says National Board Certification invigorated her teaching and drew her to the Association. As a result, she plans to run for district office and network more at the state level. "It gave me the boost I needed to keep going professionally."

-Michelle Y. Green
For more: E-mail Covarrubias at Azcovarrubias1@cs.com

Critical Friends

It started as the "Teachers' Club"-15 people talking about classroom issues over dinner. Though it was fun, members felt dissatisfied. "It was easy to talk about all the problems and never get anywhere," says history teacher Karin Weberg. "We had great camaraderie, but it wasn't very focused."

Three years later, that club has honed its focus on professional development. It's grown into formal "critical friends" groups, a highly successful professional development program that involves all but a handful of the 70 faculty members at Federal Way High School, located in a middle-income community halfway between Seattle and Tacoma, Washington.

These groups follow detailed, timed discussion rules as they consider problems brought in by their members. Discussions are kept on target, and members are helped to feel safe in exposing weak aspects of their professional work. Each group of about 12 has members with a mix of subject areas and years of experience.
Social studies teacher Andy Cameron asked his group to help him make a unit on the Cuban Missile Crisis more effective. A Spanish teacher suggested having students draft letters asking their parents to stay out of their rooms, and then compare their approach with Kennedy's letter to Khrushchev trying to get him to take nuclear missiles out of Cuba.

Weberg asked for-and got-help in putting more life and excitement into a new curriculum she designed about minorities in America. "You come away with a lot of ideas, and you can always take them or leave them," she says.

The groups meet on professional development days on which the students stay home. That required a waiver of the state attendance law, which the school board requested after an intensive outreach campaign by faculty to persuade parents that students would benefit. No one is forced to take part in a group.

Weberg feels these groups represent an important advance in professional development. "We're not talking about all the dilemmas in the educational system," she says. "We focus on the most important thing-student work in a classroom. It's not an outside, prescribed workshop that may or may not be useful. It's us as teachers taking control of reforming school."

-Alain Jehlen

Teacher Preparation

• The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), a coalition of 33 groups that includes NEA, works to establish high-quality teacher preparation. NCATE is the body that grants professional accreditation to schools, colleges, and departments of education. More than 500 of the country's teacher colleges and universities have received NCATE accreditation.
• The three states that required NCATE accreditation for all schools of education during the 1980s-Arkansas, North Carolina, and West Virginia-experienced greater than average increases in student achievement during the 1990s, based on reading and math test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
• In recent years, more than 50,000 people annually who lacked the preparation required for their former jobs entered teaching on emergency or substandard licenses.
• Studies show that fully prepared teachers-those who have an in-depth knowledge of content and know how to guide individual student learning, plan productive lessons, and diagnose student problems-produce higher achieving students.