Professional development and its impact on teacher practice

UnrestrictedThe purpose of this study was to determine the impact professional development has on improving teacher practice. The secondary purpose was to examine the link a between professional development and school leadership. This study took place at a high-poverty, high-performing elementary school in southern California that has made considerable growth according to the California Academic Performance Index (API) compared to like schools for the past three years.; In this study the researcher determined the impact of professional development on teacher practice by conducting the following: (1) interviews with teachers and site administrators; (2) conducting an extensive review of documents both at the district and site level (3) school observations and (4) administering surveys to teachers.; The population for this case study included a high-performing urban elementary school in southern California. The criteria used in selecting this school was as follows: (a) "high performing" to include a similar school ranking of at least an 8 as measured by the California Academic Performance Index (API) for at least three consecutive years, and (b) urban school to include high-poverty, high-minority student population.; The sample selected for this study is a large year-round kindergarten through fifth grade urban elementary school in southern California. The school's diverse student population consists of the following: Hispanics (70%), Asian (19%), African American (8%) and other ethnicities (3%)