LEARNGlobal Arts Professional Development Series: The Use of Teacher Development to Increase Student Success
We believe teachers who are constantly inspired to learn make the best educators, however, there is a severe lack of access to high-quality professional development for all educators. We are requesting $100,000 in funding for our Professional Development (PD) Program, which will provide free workshops for all. This program will consist of a series of workshops, held every other Friday afternoon throughout the academic year, as well as one 5-day, Summer Seminario that will bring back our most effective presenters from the year’s workshop series.
In which areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?
City of Los Angeles
In what stage of innovation is this project?
Pilot project or new program
What is the need you’re responding to?
The purpose of the Professional Development Program is to provide a collaborative space that is centered around teaching and learning. We understand, firsthand, the impact a teacher can have on their students, and it is our objective to create an environment that recognizes and encourages teachers’ continual learning.
The workshops will focus on educational psychology, musical excellence, and social justice, and will be led by world-class presenters from varying backgrounds. They will provide engaging and edifying material, as well as tangible tools that attendees can take into their classrooms and apply immediately.
The major need we are responding to is the severe lack of resources put toward teacher development. PD for teachers is often an afterthought or only offered because it is a requirement. We want teachers to have a choice from a variety of workshops and we want them to see that we have the growth and development of their needs at the forefront of our mission.
Why is this project important to the work of your organization?
Our team of educators has collectively over 30 years of teaching experience in educational programs in the Los Angeles area, and our time in the field has given us a unique perspective of how teachers can be better supported. We have seen how the effects of a positive and supportive environment affects learning and we believe that our expertise can help develop a strong backbone for other educators.
Throughout our time in the field, we have built numerous curricula that have been implemented in multiple programs within LAUSD, reaching thousands of teachers and students. But, more importantly, we have met educators and specialists who have valuable stories to tell, and beneficial tools to share with other educators; we feel that it is our responsibility to bring those people together so that we can all learn from them. We built Global Arts intentionally to ensure that educators are offered continual and impactful PD, and are presented by people that we know and trust in the field.
Approximately how many people will be impacted by this proposal?
Direct Impact: 500
Indirect Impact: 100,000
Please describe the broader impact of your proposal.
We will establish an accessible, long-term PD program with the goal of improving the academic lives of the teachers and students of LAUSD. LAUSD is the 2nd largest school district in the nation, with 35,000 teachers and an average age of 45. Last year’s Teacher Strike opened the public’s eyes to the conditions in our school system; educators demanded development opportunities and conducive learning environments not only for their students, but for themselves and other educators. Unfortunately, nationwide, only 29% of teachers are highly satisfied by professional development offerings, and this concern trickles down as it directly affects students' learning shown by LAUSD’s low graduation rate of 77% and high dropout rate of 13.6%.
Please explain how you will define and measure success for your project.
Our mission is to cultivate a community that is enjoyable, motivational, and time-effective so that attendees are inspired to return for multiple workshops and bring colleagues with them. Success for Global Arts’ Professional Development Workshop Program will be defined by the number and quality of workshops as well as the number of attendees per workshop. We will host 17 high-quality professional workshops per academic year, and for our Pilot Year (beginning September 2020) we aim to have at least 30 attendees per session, making our annual attendance over 500. Additionally, we plan to have between 50 and 75 attendees for our Summer Seminario.
Data will be collected at the end of each workshop and the seminario through questionnaires. These will provide us with qualitative feedback about attendees’ perceived effectiveness of the workshop and their desire to return for future workshops. This feedback will allow us to improve upon the topics we present, the workshops that we host, as well as help us identify potential returning presenters. In addition, questionnaires will provide us with data on the number of attendees, attendee retention, how our number of attendees are growing, and how many attendees we can project to see the following year. Our long-term goal for measuring success will also include gathering statistics on the attendees effectiveness in their classrooms.
Which of the LEARN metrics will your submission impact?
Arts education
Enrollment in afterschool programs
Which of LA2050’s resources will be of the most value to you?
Access to the LA2050 community
Host public events or gatherings
Communications support
Office space for meetings, events, or for staff
Capacity, including staff
Strategy assistance and implementation