Multi-State Online Professional Development

Changing professional development and meeting teacher needs

MOPD - A Model for Online Professional Development

About MOPD

Introduction

All 16 SREB states' departments of education are working together to use and promote the Web to provide needed quality professional development for teachers regardless of where they live or work. Each state participating in the Multi-State Online Professional Development initiative has access to exemplary online professional development workshops, high-quality training and mentoring programs for online instructors and online course designers, a repository of course content contributed by all participating states, and resources designed to guide districts and states in implementing successful online professional development. This SREB initiative provides states and schools with programs and resources that go beyond what individual states and schools would have available working on their own.

The SREB states include:

In addition to SREB and the SREB states' departments of education, the following organizations and institutions have partnered to provide leadership and share their expertise in support of the MOPD goals.

Education Development Center Inc. (EDC)
Instructional Technology Resource Center at the University of Central Florida (ITRC/UCF)
NorthEast & the Island Regional Technology in Education Consortium (NEIR*TEC)
SouthEast Initiatives Regional Technology in Education Consortium (SEIR*TEC)

Background

“Every student is taught by qualified teachers” is one of the SREB Challenge to Lead Goals for Education (2002). This goal reflects, as does the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, the central importance of the teacher to student academic success. NCLB requires that by the 2005-06 school year all teachers in core academic subjects be “highly qualified” in areas of their teaching assignment. To be considered highly qualified, teachers must demonstrate subject-matter competence for the subjects and grades they teach and show expertise in classroom teaching practices.

This focus on quality teachers is critically important since the national Schools and Staffing Survey found nearly 33 percent of high school teachers and approximately 60 percent of middle school teachers in core academic subjects do not possess state certification or an academic major in the area of their teaching assignment. The percentages of underqualified teachers are even higher in rural schools.

Quality online professional development that is designed to meet the specific academic needs of teachers is one way states are addressing these teacher-quality issues. While traditionally delivered professional development through face-to-face workshops and courses will continue to meet the needs of some teachers, states' departments of Education are beginning to embrace online professional development to reach teachers across their states, including those in remote areas. Online professional development provides the opportunity for teachers to access learning both where they are and when they need it. In the current economic environment in which states' departments of Education are all experiencing dramatic budget reductions, online professional development provides an opportunity for quality training at possibly reduced costs.


Multi-State Online Professional Development Initiative Defined

MOPD is an SREB collaborative project created to share resources and support the implementation of quality online professional development. The project, supported by SREB's Educational Technology Cooperative, involves SREB states' department of education representatives, the Education Development Center Inc. (EDC) and the SouthEast Initiatives Regional Technology in Education Consortium (SEIR*TEC).


Mission

The mission of the Multi-State Online Professional Development initiative is to establish online instruction as an important way of providing professional development for teachers and other educators in SREB states to improve student academic performance.


Goals

There are six key goals for the Multi-State Online Professional Development initiative. They are to:

• build collaboration among states, the participating schools and organizations that will develop a substantial set of high-quality online professional development courses;

• provide states' departments of education online instructors and school district personnel with high-quality training. Follow-up mentor support will further ensure the quality of the online professional development courses.

• establish and implement an ongoing program of online professional development courses and workshops for teachers and other educators;

• develop a Web-based ToolKit to guide states' departments of education and schools as they implement and evaluate effective online professional development programs. This will include information about training, course development, budgeting, evaluation, technical requirements, best practices and related resources.

• create a repository (a database of collected content) and coordinate the sharing of high-quality course content among participating schools and states; 

• evaluate the success of the training and the impact of the online professional development as an alternative to traditional face-to-face professional development and report these findings through publications and other appropriate means of dissemination.
  
   

Multi-State Online Professional Development Initiative
Participating States

For more information, e-mail Bill Thomas at bthomas@sreb.org.