Teaching Staff, K-12, Professional Development

Our district provides formal and informal professional development opportunities for all staff to learn about the needs of gifted students. A guiding characteristic of our district’s ELP programming is a flexible services model which focuses on differentiated instruction within the general education classroom as well as enrichment and acceleration through additional services provided in ELP classes. Therefore, the responsibility for differentiation of the curriculum for gifted students is a collaborative effort between general education teachers and the ELP teacher. This collaborative environment fosters communication and cooperation among all staff. Examples of collaboration include the following.

• Throughout the year ELP staff meets with teachers as needed to discuss best instructional strategies that meet the needs of gifted students in the regular classroom. 
• Each spring ELP staff shares characteristics of gifted students and reviews identification procedures with classroom teachers.
• ELP staff also meets with parents, students and classroom teachers during fall and/or winter conferences to discuss learning needs and set student goals. 

ELP Staff Professional Development and Program Evaluation

Our ELP staff meets as a learning community on a monthly basis with a focus on improving our Extended Learning Program Structure and Procedures, designing high quality instruction to provide rigor and student engagement for ELP students, and learning about the differentiation instructional learning model which supports teachers in meeting the needs of gifted students in the regular classroom. In addition, book study discussions are embedded in our monthly meeting schedule. ELP staff also attends annual state ITAG conferences in addition to various workshops that address our Program Goals throughout the year.      

Every five years, ELP staff reviews each component of our Extended Learning Program Plan during Monthly Team Meetings. Each of the following areas are addressed: Identification Procedures, Goals and Performance Measures, Differentiated Program, In-service Design, Review/Evaluation and Indicators of Best Practice. 

After the self study, qualitative evaluation surveys are distributed to principals, students, teachers and parents.  Our self-study and survey results provide valuable feedback. This information is used to set yearly goals for our Extended Learning Program.