When all is said and done, the critical question about professional development remains, “is the instruction better than it was?” If you read between the lines, the message in that question is that professional development is not about providing training, it is about improving instruction. Here is how we plan to do that: Any ABLE funded program can request assistance in the form of consultation. That consultation might be as simple as a phone call or might involve site visits and follow-up. A wide range of independent study professional development will be made available, much of it delivered through this web site or through other forms of customized self-study. Agency specific video conferences or webinars will be used extensively to provide customized agency consultation and training while minimizing the need for travel or cancellation of classes. Several intensive regional or statewide “academies” will be offered when “face-to-face” training or “hands-on” participation is necessary. These intensive trainings will pursue specific topics in greater depth and build upon the self-study materials. The LD Project will provide a single point of contact for local agencies, and that contact will coordinate involvement of the regional professional development centers. Emphasis will be placed on providing assistance and support to agencies who want to integrate LD training into program improvement or who would like to pursue local “action research” investigation. In this way, agencies will take greater ownership of their professional development and will use the LD project for consultation and guidance. The project will nurture the development of practitioners that can assume a leadership role in their agencies or region as it relates to students who have special learning needs. This will be done using personalized professional development that might be called “mentoring,” “coaching,” or just “working with the ABLE LD Project.” Several agencies are already actively engaged in such customized professional development and many have integrated that involvement into their program improvement efforts and professional development plans.

When all is said and done, the critical question about professional development remains, “is the instruction better than it was?” If you read between the lines, the message in that question is that professional development is not about providing training, it is about improving instruction. Here is how we plan to do that:

1.Any ABLE funded program can request assistance in the form of consultation. That consultation might be as simple as a phone call or might involve site visits and follow-up.
2.A wide range of independent study professional development will be made available, much of it delivered through this web site or through other forms of customized self-study.
3.Agency specific video conferences or webinars will be used extensively to provide customized agency consultation and training while minimizing the need for travel or cancellation of classes.
4.Several intensive regional or statewide “academies” will be offered when “face-to-face” training or “hands-on” participation is necessary. These intensive trainings will pursue specific topics in greater depth and build upon the self-study materials.
5.The LD Project will provide a single point of contact for local agencies, and that contact will coordinate involvement of the regional professional development centers.
6.Emphasis will be placed on providing assistance and support to agencies who want to integrate LD training into program improvement or who would like to pursue local “action research” investigation. In this way, agencies will take greater ownership of their professional development and will use the LD project for consultation and guidance.
7.The project will nurture the development of practitioners that can assume a leadership role in their agencies or region as it relates to students who have special learning needs. This will be done using personalized professional development that might be called “mentoring,” “coaching,” or just “working with the ABLE LD Project.” Several agencies are already actively engaged in such customized professional development and many have integrated that involvement into their program improvement efforts and professional development plans.

The areas related to learning differences that an agency might want to focus their professional development efforts on include:

The orientation process (Is the agency’s orientation “friendly” for students who know that they have learning difficulties?)

The screening and assessment process (Does it have a true diagnostic function? Does it provide information about learning strengths and difficulties?)

Generic instructional process (Do all staff demonstrate the fundamental characteristics of “good teaching”?)

Specific instructional content processes (Do staff need information or training in specific areas, the use of specific materials appropriate for addressing learning difficulties, or training in instructional adaptations?)

Monitoring of student learning progress including alternative assessment strategies.

Understanding the cognitive processes needed for learning such as memory, auditory reception, executive functioning and other.

The use of technology to circumvent barriers caused by learning difficulties.

Some of the activities provided as part of the mentoring process have included:

•Exploration and sharing of web sites that have potential for instructional reinforcement or independent study. Check the new additions to the web links section of this site to see some of the sites that were identified and shared with coaching sites.
•Open sessions have been held where staff were able to ask questions about particular situations
•An “electronic pen-pals” program is being developed to promote student writing and the use of technology
•Materials for students to develop memory skills were purchased by one agency
•Internet file “swapping” and distribution is a method for sharing expertise.
•Webinar type conference hosting has been researched and a subscription has been secured. This will allow any agency to host a conference call for other participants.
•One agency will be exploring a new process for screening students for learning difficulties and possibly using elements from that screening for classroom discussions.
•Alternative assessment techniques and strategies have been discussed with two agencies. This effort should integrate well with the pending Bureau policy revision dealing with alternative assessments.
•Contacts have been made with potential presenters for a spring regional conference. At the present time the presentation will likely center on the topic of vocabulary skills development, a need that quite pervasive in adult education classes.

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To help agencies to plan for LD professional development, a PowerPoint slide presentation was sent to all ABLE funded programs. The PowerPoint steps an individual through a sequence related to contact with students, identifying areas where training might be desired. Click on the graphic to the right to download the Powerpoint document.

A partner document to the Planning Guide is the LD Training Hierarchy. This one page table outlines the various levels of professional development that are available, the target populations for each type of training, the focus of training at each level and the training formats through which the professional development is delivered. Click on the graphic to the left to download a copy of the LD Training Hierarchy.

For the 2009-2019 program year, the ABLE LD Project will be making a significant effort to make it much easier for agencies to use LD Project services. With that in mind, we will be emphsizing the relationship between the quality of agency services and their ability to adapt instruction to meet student needs. LD project services will be offered through many formats ranging from site based mentoring to Internet based independent study readings and “webinars.” At the same time we will be continuing efforts to identify teachers who are interested in learning more advanced content and who can serve as leaders within their agency or region. Give us a call or drop us an e-mail and we can discuss your professional development needs and how you can improve program quality through the adaptation of teaching techniques and materials.