LEAPs of faith: How California districts' planning influences teacher professional development

Professional development is seen as a major instrument of school improvement. The goal of this study was to assess the general utility of a policy mandate approach for promoting teacher professional development. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, this study examined California's requirement that all school districts engage in a planning process to implement the professional development requirements of the federal government's No Child Left Behind Act. Through an assessment of 38 district-authored professional development plans and interviews with district-level leaders and classroom teachers in eight case study districts, I assessed the likelihood that a policy-mandated planning process would effectively promote meaningful, locally-implemented professional development for teachers. This assessment gave specific attention to how district responses to the policy varied by district size and district type (elementary or unified).; Results indicated that professional development activities differed little in the first year the policy was implemented (2003-2004) compared to the year prior to the policy's implementation (2002-2003). When compared to indicators of effective professional development derived from empirical literature, it appeared that there was much room for improvement in the activities offered to teachers by case study districts during both years. This indicated that the policy had minimal impact on the sampled districts in its first year of implementation. However, in general, larger school districts exhibited more capacity for providing effective professional development than smaller districts. More district-level leadership indicators were also exhibited by elementary districts compared to unified districts. Finally, I found that districts differed in the level of detail with which they outlined their professional development plans. Districts were much more likely to implement elements of their plan if they were specifically outlined.