EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEADERS’ COMPETENCIES OF EFFECTIVE PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The purpose of this study was twofold. It first sought to establish a comprehensive framework that clearly outlined the competencies a district level professional development leader should have to design, deliver, and evaluate professional development for educators. Next, the domain competencies were aligned to specific professional development survey items found in the North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey. The purpose of aligning the survey questions to the framework’s domain competencies was to investigate the relationship of professional development leaders’ competencies to teachers’ perceptions of professional development using a causal-comparative design. The following research questions guided the study: 1. Which theories and practices frame the essential knowledge and competencies for professional development leaders to effectively design, deliver, and evaluate professional development? 2. How, if at all, do the competency levels of professional development leaders impact teachers’ perceptions of professional development in each domain? This causal-comparative study used the results from the 2014 North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey (NCTWCS) and a self-assessment survey of professional development leaders’ competencies. Those data were used to determine if the competency levels of professional development leaders impact teachers’ perceptions of professional development in their district. A regression analysis was conducted using professional development leader competency as a predictor of teachers’ perceptions in each of the three domains. The researcher then conducted a multiple regression model to explore if the differences in how leaders perceived their competency and teachers’ perceptions of professional development in each domain were predicted by district wealth. The regression models revealed that a district’s wealth was not a predictor of the differences found within each domain. The results were not statistically significant with both regression models, indicating that teachers’ perceptions of professional development were not impacted by the district’s wealth nor the competency level of the professional development leader