A Better Type of Professional Development?

"Professional Development" in the education field is a misnomer.  Maybe it's a lie.  Nobody gets "developed".  Ask any teacher you know if they've gotten any value at all in any PD they've attended in the last couple of years; if you stumble upon one that says "yes", ask if they think the cost to the district was worth the value the teacher got out of the PD.

Honest teachers will tell you that most teachers dread PD.  It's a waste of time.  It's poorly done, it's often not at all practical, it's just a box someone can check saying they've done something to make the teachers "better".  I myself would rather have no PD at all than have to sit through any of the PD's I've sat through in the last several years.

If this is news to you, then you probably don't speak to many teachers.  My guess is the only people who like PD are those who present the PD's!

Enter micro-credentials:

New America analyzed the national landscape of educator micro-credentials (MCs) to determine how to best harness their potential to more successfully attract, develop, and retain great teachers. We find MCs to be a promising alternative to more traditional (and largely ineffective), compliance-focused teacher professional development, as well as an effective vehicle for defining and determining eligibility for some teacher roles. Whether MCs will fulfill their promise will depend largely on the ability of education leaders to set an appropriately and consistently rigorous bar for quality in MC offerings, as well as to ensure sufficient and appropriate implementation processes and supports outside of the MC offerings themselves. To aid in these efforts, we summarize early best practices for ensuring quality MC offerings as well as lessons learned about the necessary conditions for teachers to succeed with MCs. As an added resource, New America has built a companion State Policy Guide with recommendations for policymakers looking to integrate MCs into their educator professional development, license renewal, and advancement systems.

If it's better than the current system, I'd be willing to give it a try.

Reading beyond the abstract, we find this:

For the purpose of consistency and clarity, we define educator MCs as follows: A verification of a discrete skill or competency that a teacher has demonstrated through the submission of evidence assessed via a validated rubric. Educator MCs are similar to other credentials, like degrees or diplomas, in that they provide public recognition and a way to signal knowledge and/or skills held, but they differ in their focus on demonstrated application of one specific “micro” competency in practice.

The MC offerings available from the entities interviewed for this project largely meet this definition of MC, and hereafter, all references to MCs assume this definition. However, the number of entities providing offerings labeled “micro-credentials” is growing rapidly, and many are not aligned with the definition of MC used here.

So is this the latest great idea, with many companies jumping on board in hopes of making a quick buck?  You can count on it.  That doesn't mean the idea itself is bad, just that organizations have to be careful to choose high-quality programs.  If choosing textbooks is any indication, though, school districts will find a way to blow huge sums of money on flashy but crappy programs.

These goals, at least, sound great:

While MCs are primarily focused on the assessment of competency, high-quality MCs have significant potential to improve the quality of PD, and hence, the quality of instruction, by:

• Making it more relevant by identifying and targeting personalized areas for growth
• Providing resources that draw upon the best available research and evidence of impact for a given competency
• Promoting greater engagement and satisfaction with professional learning by increasing teacher agency
• Promoting learning by doing
• Providing feedback on practice and opportunities to learn from mistakes
• Modeling best practices in teaching by following an inquiry-based learning and feedback process

MCs also offer significant potential in allowing teachers to showcase their skills and advance professionally regardless of experience level or degrees held. MCs can help attract and retain highly talented teachers by formally assessing and recognizing previously unrecognized skills and providing opportunities for increased responsibilities related to those skills, along with compensation in line with those responsibilities.

The very next sentence, though, provides the sad coda: 

However, it is too soon to say with certainty whether MCs will fulfill this potential. 

Left in the hands of school district bureaucrats, I think the answer is pretty clear.