MKA Unveils Second Stage of Unique Professional Growth Program

While MKA students enjoyed a long Presidents' Day weekend break, MKA faculty were hard at work at an in-service professional development day dedicated to the second stage of the school's unique Professional Growth Program. The PGP, first initiated three years ago to replace formal but infrequentperformance evaluations, encourages teachers to become lifelong learners through self-directed questioning, goal setting and reflection, and through collaboration with both students and colleagues to gain feedback. Headmaster Tom Nammack started the morning by reflecting that the very concept of a self-directed growth plan had been "a leap of faith and a risk" and that the continued success of MKA’s unique process was dependent upon everyone's willingness to take responsibility for, and to engage in, it.

As Upper School Assistant Head and PGP Committee Chair Steve Valentine noted, "The PGP Committee has been thinking about our work, and listening to and interpreting feedback since the original launch of the program." In November, faculty responded to an extensive questionnaire to help provide further insight into the PGP's strengths and weaknesses; and their responses, presented by Associate Director of Curriculum and Professional Development Carlaina Bell, helped inform new program modifications unveiled at the in-service.

"PGP 2.0" as it will be known, replaces a three-year goal-setting timetable with a two-year program, and focuses faculty on articulating driving questions directly related to teaching and learning. The observation process has become streamlined – teachers can visit a colleague's classroom to learn something, invite a colleague into their own classroom to give interpretive feedback, or ask someone to provide an evaluation. Director of Educational Technology Reshan Richards also worked with the survey results to simplify and streamline the online support for the program, making full use of the school website’s Faculty Portal capabilities.

With the launch of the revised PGP comes a new logo, designed by Upper School F&PA Chair Alicia Cuccolo – the torch of knowledge, taken from the school seal, represents the craft of teaching; a tilted question mark represents the continual search for knowledge; and a tag line "What's Your Question?"  reminds teachers to continually ask and share "audacious" questions related to teaching and learning.

Faculty spent much of the day framing those essential questions, encouraged, in Valentine's words, to "luxuriate in this time to really think about the craft of teaching and your relationship to it." Three years later, the evidence overwhelmingly supports faculty "buy-in" to and renewed excitement for the PGP process, which for Valentine, in large part contributes to "the geography of learning that makes MKA such a special place to be."