Using Evaluation to Ensure Quality Professional Development in Rural Schools

Professionaldevelopment practices implementedin ruralschoolsystems haveoften lednowhere. These practices seem to produce adult learning activities with few results other than participants ' mount ingfrustration and another innovation left by the wayside. Toencourage the development ofproductive prof essional development, many studies are beginning to indicate the importance ofmaking evaluation central to the design ofprofessional development. Employing WI evalu­ ative approach may assist staffdevelopers in addressing the frequent criticism that professional development activities are disconnected/rom one another anddo not/arm part ofa coherent program ofteacherlearning and development. The CIPP Model wasformulatedby Stufflebeam (I ()6 6) to show how evaluation contributes to the decision-makingprocess in program management, If't· propose a similar conceptual model for ongoing data-basedprof essional development ill rural settings. This modelprovides practitioner with a useful andmanageable toolfor incorporating all evaluativ e approach to the design. development, anddeli very ofprofessionaldevelopment. In addition. we provide a practical application ofthe model to an ongoing rural professional developmentproject.