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Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)
"Staff Development" Job Title
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Anonymous
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We are thinking of moving our kids to our neighborhood public school from a private for obvious reasons. During our visit we were pleasantly surprised by the warm happy atmosphere. 20- 22 students in some grades, but 26- 27 in other grades! We understand that large classes are the result of budget cuts. A few things surprised us, science being offered just once a week or as seldom as once every two weeks and one being a the job title of staff development!
Do other mcps schools have a staff member with this title? At this particular school there is very low turn over and many of the staff have been there for many years. We found that to be impressive, so were puzzled to by the explanation we received in justifying the position. There is much controversy with the county's budget cuts. It would be helpful to hear other parents take on this. TIA |
Anonymous
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If you're impressed with the teaching you see, why don't you credit the staff developer (in part) for this, rather than seeing it as a sign that he/she's not needed.
Every professional needs to continue to grow. Having someone onsite who can coach teachers, write curriculum, run workshops, help teachers find outside resources etc . . . makes a lot of sense for everyone. |
Anonymous
| Sometimes a staff member is shared between/among schools so this person may not be a FT position at that particular school. We have a PT ESOL teacher and a PT reading specialist on our staff. You can always ask the principal about this person's role in the school. As far as science goes, it is not tested on the MSAs until 5th grade so the emphasis is on what IS tested-math and reading. |
Anonymous
| This is interesting, I wonder if our school has someone in that position. I never thought about. So this is someone who wouldn't have much or any interaction with the children. It is just someone who instructs the staff? |
Anonymous
I agree - if you like what you see, why does the school have to "justify" this position to you? For all you know, what you see and like is directly connected to the staff development efforts. |
Anonymous
| It sounds like the OP is making a major decision, why not question what staff do? And why not question budget cuts? |
Anonymous
| Do your research before you start to question the validity of a position - http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/personnel/classification/descriptions/description.aspx?fn=1009-295 |
Anonymous
| If this s what you are worrying about then life is good. As a teacher who wants/needs a staff developer at her school (PT or FT0 It is not an outsiders decision as to if I need or want development in my profession. Our wonderful staff developer wears many hat s in our school. My god people is this really what you are complaining about! shish... |
Anonymous
| Yikes, it sounds like there are defensive angry posters. The original questions sounds like one just wants to know what that job description may be since they didn't get a clear explanation from the school. |
Anonymous
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Have to agree with the original poster...
In the real world, I don't see positions justified for professional staff development. You are responsible for doing that yourself. At this time with HUGE budget cuts I'd rather see a class at its proper size than have a Staff Development. Staff Development is a "nice to have" feature, science classes and proper ratios are necessities. |
Anonymous
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At our elementary school (similar low turnover), I've seen the person in charge of teacher staff development spend time in the classrooms of new teachers. (New teachers more because our school is growing than that teachers are leaving, though there's always some turnover.) E.g. at back-to-school night, she was in the classroom observing a new teacher and also answering questions that that teacher might not know. I know she does a lot of work on the math curriculum at the school and did an overview of the math program at a PTA meeting for us parents.
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Anonymous
| I looked up this job title in our school directory and was surprised to find one! This person wasn't introduced at back to school night along with the other staff. I wonder what the roles and responsibilities are. Op, thanks for bringing this up! Time to investigate. |
Anonymous
i work on education policy and truthfully i would much rather have a focus on staff development and teacher support than reducing class size by a few kids. what makes a difference is the teacher not the class size, according to research. it's better to have smaller classes but if you don't have a good supported teacher having a small class doesn't make much difference, unless many of the kids are real behavior problems. |
Anonymous
Hmmmm, I don't work in business, but I have a brother who does corporate training -- companies spend thousands and thousands of dollars to fly him in for a couple of days to "develop staff". Their employees definitely aren't responsibile for "doing that themselves". My father was a foreign service officer. Over the course of his career he had a total of 3 years where he was away from his job for months or a year at a time, pursuing education or training (or staff development) at the expense of the government. Staff development. My son spent his kindergarten year in a classroom with a first year teacher who made tons of "first year mistakes". The kind of thing that a coach or supervisor would recognize and correct in 5 minutes spent in the classroom. Because DCPS didn't include money for those positions in the budget, all the kids suffered. I'd much rather have had a few extra kids in the classroom and a teacher who was supported and able to do an effective job. |
Anonymous
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Your world appears to be La La Land, lady.
There are many in-house trainers, especially in large corporations. The staff development teachers were originally under the Office of Organizational Development where they were trained by staff development specialists who, in pairs, were assigned to specific school clusters. When the economy went bust, the specialists (not the staff development teachers at the school level) were reassigned to other departments, depending upon their experiences and educational training. So those who did leadership training (for assistant principals and principals) are now under HR. Others who primarily trained teachers are now under curriculum and instruction. They still continue to train staff development teachers, although the sessions have been cut drastically b/c of budgetary constraints. So regardless of what you - and even the OP - think of this position, if used correctly and wisely, it benefits teachers immensely.
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