Involving stakeholders in determining professional development center attendance policies

Abstract

Professional development opportunities are an important aspect of teacher development and should be embraced by both teachers and school leaders in a collaborative effort. Unfortunately, certain professional development events are plagued with high absenteeism rates. At a regional inservice center in the South (USA), high absenteeism was targeted as requiring immediate administrative attention. Thus, the members of the governing board and the director of the center engaged in an action research plan to combat the problem. Over the course of a summer program, the no‐show rate (average number of participants who registered for a workshop yet did not attend) was tracked in 62 independent workshops. Considerations such as time of day, location, workshop topic, and teaching level of teacher were analyzed, yielding nonsignificant results and no discernible patterns. Instead, a pattern of chronic absenteeism for some individuals, in certain school systems, was noted. Using this data, an action plan was devised. Suggestions included increased marketing, communication with individual no‐show offenders, and communication with school leaders from targeted systems.

Citation

Good, J. (2003), "Involving stakeholders in determining professional development center attendance policies", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 14-18. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513540310456356