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Professional Readings includes reviews of recent publications and highlights of reports on current issues that affect schools. Your contributions are welcome. Send them to principal@osu.edu. Please indicate if we may use your name in the “contributor” credits.
Evaluating Professional Development
Guskey, Thomas R. (2000). Evaluating Professional Development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. website >
With this text, Guskey offers educators practical guidance in “asking good questions and gathering valid information both to document the effects of professional development and to describe more precisely what contribute to its effectiveness.” (p. 2)
What Is Professional Development?
Professional development is an intentional, ongoing and systemic process. Major models of professional development are: training, observation/assessment, involvement in a development/improvement process, study groups, inquiry/action research, individually guided activities and mentoring.
What Is Evaluation?
Evaluation is the systematic investigation of merit or worth. This chapter offers an examination of the major types of evaluation, and standards for good evaluations.
Practical Guidelines for Evaluating Professional Development
A model of the relationship between professional development and improvement in student learning identifies and clarifies critical relationships in a way that helps school leaders plan, implement and evaluate their professional development efforts. Five levels of professional development evaluation are identified: participants’ reaction, participants’ learning, organization support and change, participants’ use of new knowledge and skills and student learning outcomes.
Level 1: Participants’ Reactions
Participants’ reaction is the most common form of evaluation. The process can be meaningful and useful only when one considers how the following questions relate:
- What questions are addressed at this level?
- How will the information be gathered?
- What is measured or assessed?
- How will the information be used?
Level 2: Participants’ Learning
In assessing participants’ learning, we want to find out if the professional development led to changes in knowledge base, skill level, or attitudes and beliefs. The following questions are considered:
- Why is it important to assess participants’ learning?
- What questions are addressed at this level?
- What types of learning are assessed?
- How will the information be gathered?
- What is measured or assessed?
- How will the information be used?
Level 3: Organization Support and Change
Information at this level helps document the organizational conditions that accompany success or describe those that might explain the lack of improvement. Questions to consider are:
- Why is it important to assess organization support and change?
- What questions are addressed at this level?
- How will the information be gathered?
- What is measured or assessed?
- How will the information be used?
Level 4: Participants’ Use of New Knowledge and Skills
Evaluation at this level cannot be done until participants have had adequate time to implement new knowledge, apply new skills and reflect on the experience. Evaluators must consider the following four challenges in evaluating participants’ use of new knowledge and skills:
- Identify critical indicators of use.
- Specify dimensions of quantity and quality.
- Determine if adequate time was provided.
- Allow sufficient flexibility for contextual adaptations.
Level 5: Student Learning Outcomes
Evaluating student learning outcomes is important because:
- It offers new perspectives on old problems.
- It promotes high expectations and more rigorous standards.
- It broadens perspectives on the factors that influence professional development.
- It empowers professional developers to make what they do count.
Types of Student Learning Outcomes:
- Cognitive
- Affective
- Psychomotor
Presenting Evaluation Results
Evaluation should be presented in ways that make sense to the stakeholders and decision makers. The following questions are important to consider:
- How do we begin the evaluation process?
- What scale of evaluation should be considered?
- Who is responsible for the evaluation?
- How is evaluation information best presented?
- How should evaluation reports be organized?
- What additional aspects of evaluation need to be considered?
- Should cost-benefit analysis be conducted?
- Where do we go from here?
