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Home > Teachers & Administrators > Professional Learning

Professional Learning

High-quality professional learning is an integral part of a comprehensive talent management system that develops, supports, and grows educators throughout their careers.

In Rhode Island, we believe that high-quality professional learning (HQPL) consists of coherent learning experiences that are relevant, purposeful, systematic, and structured over a sustained period of time with the goal of improving and building upon educators' practices and student outcomes. HQPL enables educators to impact student learning and well-being through the acquisition and application of knowledge, skills, and abilities that address the whole child. HQPL conforms to best practices in research and relates directly to the educator's professional context through which the learning is applied.

This summer, RIDE completed an internal analysis of the 2017-18 SurveyWorks responses with a focus on questions pertaining to professional learning. Please see our newly published infographic with key findings from this analysis. We hope to continue to use this structure in the years ahead to better understand the professional learning landscape across Rhode Island schools.

2017-18 SurveyWorks Professional Learning Analysis Infographic

RIPLS
Tools & Resources
Educator Course Network (ECN)

RI Professional Learning Standards (RIPLS)

NEW RIPLS Document Published with Council Endorsement

RIDE is committed to helping our schools and districts strengthen their professional learning systems and practices. As such, we are excited to share the Rhode Island Professional Learning Standards (RIPLS) document that was endorsed by the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education in October 2018. As you begin to unpack and implement the RIPLS with your local teams, we encourage you to review our supporting resources and to reach out to the RIDE team directly with questions at PL@ride.ri.gov.

RIPLS Tools & Resources

Implementation of the RIPLS is the first and necessary step in achieving the type of foundation needed to impact educator and student outcomes. To this end, the development of high-quality professional learning systems and learning experiences requires a variety of tools and resources to support LEAs throughout the process. The RIDE team, in partnership with stakeholders across RI and national organizations, have developed the following tools to complement the RIPLS document as LEAs continue to develop and refine local professional learning systems.

RIPLS Audit Tool

This Audit Tool is a strategically-designed companion document for the RIPLS. Its purpose is to support teams of educators and district leaders in conducting an audit of local professional learning and the systems that contribute to this work. Auditing is one strategy to improve the effectiveness of local professional learning systems and practices. We hope this tool becomes a resource in making professional learning relevant and valuable for all educators so they can more effectively support our students in achieving outstanding outcomes.

RIPLS Audit Tool

RIPLS Audit Tool Use-Case

An important part of developing tools for districts is to understand how they are used. These documented experiences can help other LEAs generate ways to use these tool in different contexts, while providing the RIDE team with opportunities to refine the overall tool. We are grateful for the partnership with Bristol Warren Public School District to develop our first documented use of the Audit Tool. The following use-case provides one example for how a district used the RIPLS Audit Tool to analyze a current professional learning initiative and to inform future refinements for this on-going initiative. This specific case is meant to engage readers in dialogue and to generate ideas for using the Audit Tool in a range of settings.

Audit Tool Use Case: Bristol-Warren Public School District

Professional Learning Initiatives & RIPLS Crosswalks

The RIPLS are grounded in existing research and are aligned with key concepts found in strong examples of professional learning. We have developed crosswalks that map Rhode Island-specific professional learning initiatives to the RIPLS. It is our hope that these crosswalks will help users to understand what the RIPLS could look like in practice.

Induction coaching is a professional learning initiative where an effective educator with the right disposition and skill-set “coaches” a beginning teacher through observation, feedback, and goal-setting. The coach’s purpose is to accelerate beginning teacher effectiveness to increase student achievement by providing high-quality, data-driven, and instruction-focused supports.

Induction Coaching Crosswalk

For general questions related to professional learning, please email PL@ride.ri.gov.

Educator Course Network (ECN)

Educators deserve access to high-quality learning experiences that are relevant, differentiated, purposeful, and sustained in order to improve and build upon their practice throughout their careers. The ECN is the lever to create such access.

Launching in the spring of 2019, the ECN will be a marketplace for districts to access high-quality professional learning offerings from vendors whose work aligns with the RI Professional Learning Standards (RIPLS) and meets the criteria for RIDE's endorsement. It is our hope that the ECN will provide educators with valuable opportunities to improve their practice by augmenting what is available locally.

For general questions related to professional learning, please email PL@ride.ri.gov.

**NEW** From Commissioner Wagner's December 7, 2018 Field Memo

In the August 31 Field Memo, we announced that we had begun working on the new Educator Course Network (ECN). As we finalize criteria for entry, we believe we have identified criteria that will encourage providers to create high-quality professional learning experiences. We invite interested professional learning provides to respond to our recently released Request for Information (RFI) so that we may better understand the perspectives of potential local and national vendors in order to create an application for entry that is thoughtful, measured, and accurately represents that which will best support Rhode Island’s LEAs and educators alike.

Please know that completing the RFI does not guarantee entry into the ECN. When developed, all interested vendors will also need to complete the application for entry. Our intent is that this RFI process will prove helpful to providers by signaling the types of questions we will likely ask on the application, and also helpful to RIDE, so that we may all put forth our best thinking and effort around supporting meaningful professional learning here in Rhode Island.

If interested in submitting an RFI, please follow these specific instructions from the RI Department of Administration:

The RI Department of Education (RIDE) is requesting informational responses from qualified firms to provide professional learning services. To access the RFI information, please visit www.purchasing.ri.gov. Click on Solicitation Opportunities, then State Agency Solicitations. Type in the solicitation number 7597670, then search. Click on the number under the Solicitation Number column. Questions concerning this solicitation must be received by the Division of Purchases at gail.walsh@purchasing.ri.gov no later than 5:00 pm (EST) on Monday, December 17, 2018. The submission deadline for bids is 2:00 pm (EST) on Monday, January 7, 2019.

Content Specific Professional Learning Offerings

All content-specific professional learning offerings can be found on the Instruction, Assessment and Curriculum landing page under the content title located on the menu to the right of the page.