Season 3 Episode 11

Rethinking Professional Development – Season 3 Ep. 11

We spend approximately a gazillion dollars on teacher professional development, yet the results have been...meh. Why do we spend so much money on professional development and what needs to be done to make it a more worthwhile practice? We sit down with two PD specialists--Karin Rinderknecht of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools and Mark Jutabha of WestEd--to discuss the world of professional development and why we don’t seem to be getting a real bang for our buck. But first, we explore recent headlines in education regarding houseless students, students’ negative feelings about high school, and a promising principal pipeline program.

HEADLINES IN EDUCATION - S3 Ep11

Jeff and Manuel examine recent headlines in education. The number of homeless students reaches a new record while incoming teachers struggle to afford rent, a survey by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence shows that students’ have overwhelmingly negative feelings about high school, and the Wallace Foundation spends millions on an effort to make principals more effective as a major lever for improving student performance.

SEMINAR - RETHINKING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

We spend approximately a gazillion dollars on teacher professional development, yet the results have been...meh. Why do we spend so much money on professional development and what needs to be done to make it a more worthwhile practice? We sit down with two PD specialists--Karin Rinderknecht of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools and Mark Jutabha of WestEd--to discuss the world of professional development and why we don’t seem to be getting a real bang for our buck.

One-on-one with Karin Rinderknecht

After filming our seminar discussion about teacher professional development, Jeff sat down with Karin Rinderknecht to learn more about her work in education. Karin is the Senior Director of School Transformation for Literacy at the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. Over the last 18 years, she has held a wide variety of roles educating students, teachers, and school leaders, with a focus on the effective implementation of standards-aligned instruction. She started her career as a HS English teacher in New York City, and also taught in Los Angeles public and charter high schools for 7 years. Karin left the classroom to join The Achievement Network, an organization serving high-need schools in 20 states, where she focused on helping teachers and school leaders more effectively use data to improve student learning outcomes. Since 2013 she has led the literacy team at the Partnership for LA Schools, supporting teachers and school leaders across 18 LAUSD schools. She is also an instructor for UnboundED’s Standards Institute, where she helps educators from across the country learn how to build more equitable literacy practices in classrooms.

One-on-one with Mark Jutabha

After filming our seminar discussion about teacher professional development, Manuel sat down with guest Mark Jutabha to learn more about his work in education. Mark is a School Improvement Facilitator with the Comprehensive School Assistance Program at WestEd and partners with states, districts, and schools to coordinate and deliver research-based professional development and coaching services in Mathematics and English Language Learning. He currently leads WestEd’s efforts with Teacher Practice Teams, a problem solving process to sustain solutions for site-based math challenges. Mark has created and supported the design of district-, school- classroom-level curriculum and assessments aligned to the CCSS, ELD, NGSS, and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium protocols for over 100 public and charter schools and districts from New York Public Schools to Los Angeles and dozens of places in between.