Dissertation Writing Help - Professional Development: Costs and Effectiveness in One Rural District

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This study inspected investments made in professional development in a rural school district as well as analyzed whether those investments were spent on high excellence professional development activities. The research utilized Odden, Archibald, et al.'s (2002) cost structure framework which disaggregates professional development expenditures into six cost elements, teacher time, administration, materials, training and coaching, equipment and facilities, travel and transportation, and tuition and conference fees. In addition this study categorized as well as analyzed professional development expenditures based on the target, focus, delivery strategy, duration and funding source for each professional development activity.

The research was conducted in a rural school district of 2,650 students in southern Wisconsin. Investments in professional development were resolute by analyzing the entire school district budget as well as each individual school budget. Interviews were likewise conducted with administrators to help further identify and code the professional development expenditures.

The study found expert development expenditures to total 2.9% of the $29,335,574 overall budget for the district, which translates to $3,643 per teacher. When the results were disaggregated into the six cost elements included in Odden, Archibald, et al.'s (2002) cost structure framework, it was found that the greatest expensive element was teacher time which accounted for 88% of the total professional development budget. When teacher time was disaggregated further, planning and preparation time rummage-sale for professional development accounted for 60% of the total professional development expenditures in the district.

The results likewise found that none of the professional development activities included all six features of high quality professional development (that is focus on content, opportunities for active learning, coherence with other learning activities, a proven form of activity, collective participation of teachers and activities of significant duration) and few activities contained more than three of the six elements.

Although the results of the study aren't generalizable to other schools and districts, the research sets the stage for determining whether districts are efficiently using the money they spend on professional development and if not, for computing whether the districts have the resources needed to implement high quality professional development.