Relationship of Professional Development Participation to Observed Changes in Teacher Practice and Student Outcomes
2. Claims Examined
The primary question of concern in this paper asks: Is there a relationship between the differing levels of teacher engagement in AIMS-supported professional development and observed changes in teacher practice as evidenced by student engagement in the classroom? The secondary asks: Does teacher participation in NSF-sponsored MSP professional development on mathematics content, curriculum, and technology integration in addition to regionally available professional development increase student achievement over teacher participation in regional professional development alone? These questions examine the claim that professional development that strengthens teacher content knowledge and instructional methods is one of the most cost-effective methods for increasing student scores on standardized tests (Holler, Callender, & Skinner, 2007).
