Why is PD Ineffective?

         Teachers’ professional developments are categorized as ineffective because the architecture of the education was designed more as a business than a strategy to empower the majority of the students.   The education system has evolved in a slow motion pattern during the past 100 years. It is not viewed as the power force of the country, where the government would encourage everybody to reach the university. Let me clarify my opinion.

        

          First, teachers have a low salary that affects the performance at school.  Many teachers have two jobs which drains their energy, reducing their learning cognitive skills.  On the other hand, better wages would attract more professionals, which would increase the range to select the most effective and innovative learning facilitators. While letting go of the low performing teachers.

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         Second, education is a privilege, not a right. It does not matter, if the constitution states that all scholars will have equal education opportunities; in reality not everybody has the same possibility. Only 35.4 % of Americans complete a four year college degree; 13 % reach a master degree; and 2 % a PhD degree. While only 47.5 % of teachers have a postgraduate degree ($20,000 average cost). But 100% of the teachers participated in yearly professional developments that are not effective and cost around $18,000 per year, per teacher.

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         Third, poor execution in school organizations, where teachers spend more than 80% of their energy, to run the operation day by day and the remaining percentage on strategic goals and effective development skill to empower and engage students. Some administrators believe that overloading teachers is better, forcing them to lower the quality and the performance of the lesson planning and execution.

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         Finally, many districts have tried to improve learning practices by paying a lot of money to consultants for a couple of conferences or a professional development session. Some with good information (< 40%), but not effective for the reality of each school. Teachers need to be included actively in the process of developing significant, practical and ongoing. Allowing teachers to learn new strategies, especially critical thinking and problem solving.   This is why 90 % of teachers report that PD are useless. However, in my opinion, teachers are part of the equation for poor PD. Because they have the responsibility to speak up and request appropriate and effective professional developments.

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Reference

Duffin, E., (2020, Mar 31)  Percentage of the U.S. population who have completed four years of college or more from 1940 to 2019, by gender1 

Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/184272/educational-attainment-of-college-diploma-or-higher-by-gender/  

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Evans, D., (2019, May 3) Does raising teacher Salaries improve performance?

Retrieved from https://psmag.com/education/what-do-teacher-salaries-do-to-teacher-performance 

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Heather, H., (2015) Review of The mirage: Confronting the hard truth about our quest for teacher development. Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Retrieved from https://nepc.colorado.edu/sites/default/files/ttr_hill_tntp_mirage.pdf

 

NCES ( 2020, May) Characteristics of Public School Teachers

Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_clr.asp 

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Puketza, A., (2019, Feb 28) Education is a privilege, not a right

Retrieved from https://www.knightcrier.org/opinion/2019/02/28/editorial-education-is-a-privilege-not-a-right/