“Well-designed and implemented Professional Development should be considered an essential component of a comprehensive system of teaching and learning that supports students to develop the knowledge, skills, and competencies they need to thrive in the 21st century.”—from “Effective Teacher Professional Development,” published by the Learning Policy Institute

Learning and growing is not just for students at Epiphany School. It is essential that teachers and staff members continue to develop and evolve professionally as well. When adults take on the role of student, they not only learn new ideas and approaches to bring back to the classroom, but they model lifelong learning for their students.

Throughout its history, Epiphany School has been an institution committed to teacher professional development. Teachers and staff have regularly attended national conferences, presented workshops, published professional articles, completed graduate degrees, and more, all with the enthusiastic support of the school. On his retirement in 2008, former Head of School George Edwards provided ongoing commitment to this work by creating a pool of funds, the George O. Edwards Faculty Enrichment Fund, exclusively for the professional development of the teachers at Epiphany. With this deep support for teacher growth already in place, the goal now is to expand this successful model of professional learning and make it even more effective for improving student learning into the future.

Summer Professional Growth Grants

One way the school is moving towards this goal is through a new opportunity called Summer Professional Growth Grants. Using the qualities of effective professional learning for educators, these grants are designed to provide integrated and timely professional learning for teacher teams on strategic and relevant topics.

In the spring, teachers and staff were offered the chance to apply for one of eight “learning pathways” for the summer: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Mathematics; English Language Arts; Social-Emotional Learning; Academic Diversity; Professional Learning Communities; Technology; or Arts Integration. Each of these topics link with the school’s ongoing initiatives for growth and our new strategic plan.

Summer Professional Growth Grants financially support faculty and staff attendance at conferences, workshops, or classes—including many prominent national events—as well as post-event time for team reflection and planning. For example, this August ten Epiphany educators will attend the three-day Professional Learning Communities at Work Institute in Seattle, exploring how to build a more collaborative school culture to enhance student learning. After the institute, the team will spend a day together to process and reflect on how to best implement at Epiphany what they’ve learned. Then, in the fall, the team will present to the full staff and begin the process of integrating Professional Learning Community (PLC) best practices into our daily work at school.

Truly effective professional development has a lasting impact. As staff gain new insights, skills, and practices, the benefits are passed on to the students. The Professional Learning Communities pathway is no exception. One way we plan to implement PLC work in the 2019-20 school year is to better integrate the school’s drama and musical performances into classroom curriculum. Music and Performance Specialist Leslie Larkin will meet with teaching teams to collaborate and spend multiple days in each classroom in the lead-up to each grade’s all-school performance. This new model will ensure connections between classroom learning and the performance are even more organic and meaningful for students. This is only one example of how the student learning experience will be enhanced due to our underlying work on PLCs this summer. For every learning pathway, as the staff share new knowledge with each other, student learning is transformed, too.

Though applying for a Summer Professional Growth Grant is optional, 100% of the teaching staff are participated in the first year. Their commitment to taking time out of summer vacation for continued education is powerful evidence of how much our staff value this work. We are all learners at Epiphany School. After all, building a growth mindset in our students starts with fostering a growth mindset in ourselves.

The Qualities of Effective Professional Learning for Educators:

According to a review of research by the Learning Policy Institute, effective professional development for educators...

• is content focused

• incorporates active learning

• supports collaboration

• uses models of effective practice

• provides coaching and expert support

• offers feedback and reflection

• is of sustained duration