5.

3 Professional Learning - design and implement program evaluations to determine the overall
effectiveness of professional learning on deepening teacher content knowledge, improving
teacher pedagogical skills and/or increasing student learning.
____________________________________________________________________________

The ITEC 7460 Evaluation Instrument, reflects my growing capacity to evaluate

professional development and the standards for professional learning used to drive school
improvement goals. I designed evaluation instruments that could be used to evaluate a school-
wide instructional technology practice. The instruments were based on all 5 levels of Guskey’s
Evaluative framework.
The ITEC 7460 Evaluation Instrument demonstrates my ability to design and implement
program evaluations to determine the overall effectiveness of professional learning on
deepening teacher content knowledge, improving teacher pedagogical skills and increase
student learning. I used Guskey’s Five Stages to gauge professional learning impact as follows:
Participants’ Reaction, Participants’ Learning, Organizational Support and Change, Participants’
Use of Knowledge, and Student Learning Outcomes. Using Guskey’s model of effectiveness, I
created the evaluation instrument as an effectiveness measure for a recent Nearpod
professional learning series that I lead for K-5 educators. After the initial technology support
session, teachers engaged at level 1 and shared their reaction to the professional learning using
a Google Forms allowing for immediate feedback. Level 2 addresses participant learning ad was
evaluated using a post session survey that identified major takeaways and next steps. It also
helped establish the current reality and next steps for refining learning designs for future
support (Learning Forward, 2011). Level 3 evaluated support and change at the organizational
level. This required implementation of a plan to prioritize, monitor, and coordinate resources to
sustain the impact of the professional development. The plan included highlighting the
implementation of Nearpod in the weekly school focus and reviewing it inclusion in lesson
plans. As the school Nearpod administrator, I was also able to review usage and learning
outcomes on an ongoing basis using the leadership dashboard. This led me to Level 4 where I
evaluated participants use of knowledge through observations guided by a rubric. Finally, I
completed level 5 of evaluation using data derived from formative assessments to measure
student learning comes.
 In completing this experience, I learned how important it is for to prioritize, monitor and
evaluate technology initiatives to manage and sustain organizational change. To improve my
evaluation instrument, I would have included a timeline with set dates for evaluation and
review.
The work that went into creating this instrument has impacted school improvement.
The impact on school improvement can be assessed by the increased usage of Nearpod as
evident in lesson plans, data usage and observation. The impact on student learning can be
assessed by increased engagement in formative assessments and independent tasks assigned in
personalized self-paced Nearpod lessons.

References
Guskey, T. R. (2016). Gauge impact with 5 levels of data. The Learning Professional, 37(1),
32-37.

Knight, J. (2018). The impact cycle: What instructional coaches should do to foster powerful
improvements in teaching. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Learning Forward. (2011). Standards for professional learning. Oxford, OH: Author