California Staff Development/Requirements

Posted on January 13th, 2008, by Meggin McIntosh

Info:A few weeks ago on a Tier 2 call, we were having a discussion about whether California has some requirements for people who are providing staff development in their state. I contacted one of my former graduate students who is now an associate superintendent and here’s what she found out for us. (Note: the maroon writing is her explanation and the black email is the info she received):

The lady at the state department got back to me and said that there are only a few programs requiring approved staff development and those are the few that I knew about:The district must use State Board of Education-approved providers for state-mandated programs that require SBE-approved providers. Programs like AB 430, Administrator Training; SB 472, Reading and Mathematics Professional Development; and Chief Business Officer Training have a requirement that districts use SBE-approved providers.

The Professional Development Block Grant, for example, does not have an SBE-approved training provider requirement, so there’s no list of providers approved by the SBE for the use of that funding source.

Those providers she mentions are usually large County offices of education like LA or Sacramento or some private companies. For example, our new principal is attending several days of training throughout the year in the AB 430 program. She travels to Sacramento for those where she meets up with new principals from all over the northern part of the state.Posted by Meggin | 1/13/08

Counties and districts in CA have several pots of PD money like the PD Block Grant that she mentions. I have that plus Title II, some technology, and some for PAR (for new or struggling teachers). Those are the funds I access to bring in different trainers…