Professional Development

Building Expert Teachers

Professional Teacher LearningContinuous professional development is especially important for those working with students that struggle with literacy learning. The clinical nature of intervention training provides the capacity for continuous problem-solving for the most challenging learners (Bryk, 2009a; Bryk, 2009b; May et al., 2016).

School leaders come to value the flexibility of offering site-based training for their intervention teachers taught by a registered teacher leader, and the continuing professional development for both the teachers and the teacher leader(s). During the training year, teachers participate in weekly sessions while working with four children in a one-to-one setting. The important feature of this training model is the capacity that teachers build for problem-solving and reflective practice that can be used by educators in all aspects of their work in schools.

This model of professional development helps teachers build a reflective focus on their teaching practice:

  • They notice a mismatch between what the child is doing and their own rationales.
  • They learn to check on their own assumptions in the face of student behaviors and clear data.
  • They learn to articulate conflicts and shifts in ideas with their peers.
  • They shift their practices and understandings of learning to read and write.
  • They become more articulate about literacy processes and question their colleagues.
  • They pick up a learning issue and reason it through.

The 4-year i3 evaluation study (May et al., 2016) found that the instructional strength of Reading Recovery teachers was the most important factor in the effectiveness of lessons. They defined instructional strength as the extent to which a teacher teaches for maximum learning in every lesson. They found that effective  teachers demonstrated two characteristics:

  • Deliberateness: a commitment to thoughtful practice
  • Instructional Dexterity: the flexible application of deep skills within the lesson itself

They also found that the strongest teachers demonstrated openness to change, excellent interpersonal skills, a strong work ethic, and a belief in the ability of all students to learn. Additionally, the research suggested that implementation decisions made by school and district leaders directly impacted the effectiveness of lessons.

The Benefit of University Credit

LCNA offers more than intervention program for at-risk students. It is a system intervention to reduce reading failure. Our interventions work because teachers gain expertise in how to teach the hardest-to-teach children in effective ways. The initial course work requires graduate academic credit across an academic year in order to ensure rigor and high expectations. The requirement of academic credit provides the means for holding teachers accountable for the learning and for the commitment to high-quality teaching and implementation. Only teachers who meet the rigorous training standards receive course credit.

Intervention Training

LCNA’s outstanding results are rooted in its three-tiered training and professional development for teachers, teacher leaders, and university trainers.

LCNA’s trained professionals receive a full academic year of graduate-level education followed by ongoing professional development sessions throughout their tenure.

No packaged program can substitute for an informed teacher’s design and delivery of individual lessons for each child. In one-to-one interventions, the teacher analyzes students’ strengths and needs, selects procedures and makes informed teaching decisions before and during lessons, and assesses results to inform her next teaching moves. This process takes skill and ongoing study, collaboration, and support.

Learn more about our 3-tiered training:

Training for Teachers

Training for intervention teachers is a yearlong period of change as teachers learn to make decisions based on a child’s responses during individual teaching sessions.

A highly qualified teacher makes a difference in student outcomes, especially for children having difficulties. Our professional development is widely acclaimed as an investment in the professional skills of teachers and a model worth emulating (Herman & Stringfield, 1997).

School districts select teacher candidates who must be certified teachers with a record of successful teaching experience with young children. These teachers engage in a full academic year of professional development with graduate credit under the guidance of a registered Teacher Leader.

Following an intensive week of assessment training to learn to administer, score, and interpret the Observation Survey (Clay 2002, 2005, 2016), the teachers actively participate in weekly classes while applying their learning by teaching four children individually on a daily basis. Because intervention teachers often work only part of the school day in one-to-one lessons, the professional development is designed to also benefit their work in other settings (e.g., classrooms, small groups, work with special populations of children, literacy coaches).

The Teacher Leader makes at least four visits during the school year to each teacher-in-training to observe lessons and to consult about children and implementation in the school. Detailed information about teacher selection and professional development requirements for teachers is found in the Standards and Guidelines for the United States and for Canada.

Teacher training is comprehensive, complex, and intensive because each teacher must learn to design and deliver individual daily lessons. No prescriptive manual or packaged set of materials can meet each child’s individual needs. Teachers must learn to:

  • systematically and regularly assess each child’s current understandings
  • closely observe and record behaviors for evidence of progress
  • use teaching procedures competently and appropriately
  • put their observations and analyses into words and articulate their questions and challenges
  • self-analyze teaching decisions to determine the effect on each child’s learning
  • tailor interactions to extend each child’s understandings
  • communicate regularly with the classroom teacher about each child’s progress in both settings

Professional development consistently integrates theory and practice. All teachers teach lessons behind a one-way mirror, enabling their colleagues to observe, discuss, and reflect on the teaching and learning. In addition to putting what they see into words, they articulate conflicts with their previous assumptions. They learn to analyze and discuss effective teaching and to apply new understandings to their own teaching.

Professional development for teachers closely mirrors current research findings (see Darling-Hammond & Richardson, 2009).

  • Useful professional development emphasizes active teaching, assessment, observation, and reflection.
  • Effective professional development enables teachers to acquire new knowledge, apply it to practice, and reflect on the results with colleagues.
  • Professional development that focuses on student learning and helps teachers develop the necessary pedagogical skills has strong positive effects on practice.
  • Research supports professional development that is intensive, sustained over time, collaborative, and collegial.

After their initial year of professional development, teachers-in-training participate in a minimum of six sessions each year with their colleagues and Teacher Leader. At least four sessions involve observing lessons through a one-way mirror while discussing child behaviors and teaching strategies. This ongoing professional development system ensures continuous inquiry and teacher learning to support accelerated student outcomes.

Training for Teacher Leaders

Teacher Leaders have a complex role that requires a wide range of skills obtained in a full academic year of professional development.

They are leaders in their local districts where they teach children, train intervention teachers for local schools, maintain contact with past trainees, analyze and report student outcomes, educate the local educators, advocate for what cannot be compromised, and communicate with the public.

Teacher Leaders are selected by a school district or consortium of districts that has made a commitment to implement effective interventions. The Teacher Leader candidate attends a registered University Training Center for an academic year of full-time professional development. For more details about requirements for Teacher Leader selection and professional development see the Standards and Guidelines. Candidates must have an advanced degree with teaching credentials, effective teaching experience, and leadership potential. Find your University Training Center

The Teacher Leader candidate attends a registered University Training Center for an academic year of full-time professional development. Their complex role requires them to:

  • become intervention teachers
  • develop an academic understanding of Literacy Processing Theory and a flexibility to consider new concepts and practices
  • test practice against theoretical concepts
  • critically appraise Reading Recovery’s strengths and problem spots as well as competing explanations for its success
  • observe and work through the experiences of a teacher trainee group across an academic year with the support of experienced teacher leaders in the field
  • help teachers develop competency in individualized assessment-based instruction to improve student achievement
  • become skilled at working with adult learners in order to effect significant change in teachers’ practice
  • develop a thorough knowledge of the interventions in an education system including organizing and administering the teacher training course and evaluating and reporting student outcomes
  • become skilled at working with local administrators (e.g., site coordinator, principals)
  • develop interactive system-level leadership skills

In order to accomplish these goals during the initial year of professional learning, Teacher Leader candidates teach one-to-one daily; participate in graduate-level classes at an authorized training center that include teaching sessions; engage in course work to explore theoretical concepts in reading, writing, language, literacy difficulties, and adult learning theory; participate in leadership seminars and practical lessons that include field work at established sites; and prepare their home districts for implementation.

After the initial year, Teacher Leaders return to full-time positions in their districts/sites and ongoing professional development. They continue to learn during this field year with the guidance and support of their university trainer(s). They teach one-to-one daily, train intervention teachers, and provide leadership for site’s interventions. Teacher Leaders oversee data collection on all intervention students and use that evaluation data to work with school leadership teams to improve student performance and implementation factors.

As long as they are in the role, Teacher Leaders participate in regularly scheduled professional development sessions conducted by university trainers. They also attend a national or regional conference each year and participate in an annual required national Teacher Leader Institute to ensure current knowledge about all aspects of their roles.

Training for University Trainers

Becoming a University Trainer requires a year-long program at the post-doctoral level.

Trainers are faculty members within an established university training center (UTC) who are responsible for initial and ongoing professional development for teacher leaders, supporting a network of affiliated teacher training sites, expanding and strengthening sites within the network, and ensuring the integrity of LCNA intervention within the region.

For more detailed information about the professional development requirements to become a Trainer, see the Standards and Guidelines for the United States and for Canada.

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