Services for Schools & Districts

Overview

The Professional Development Alliance provides a wide range of services to schools and districts in Will, Grundy, and Kendall counties in Illinois.  Services are performed under the auspices of the Will and Grundy/Kendall Regional Offices of Education. Services may be offered to a school free of charge, on a per-contract charge, or on an hourly charge, depending on grant eligibility and the type of service.

Flexible Levels and Formats

Every school faces a unique set of circumstances and has its own set of needs.  For some schools, the PDA is a vital partner in the development of the School Improvement Plan and of the school's long-term professional development plan.  Other schools may already have those things in place and simply call us for a presenter in a specific field.  Other schools will fall somewhere in between, utilizing one of our consultants to address one or more goals within the School Improvement Plan. Whatever the level of services you need, we stand ready to help.

Professional development and support services may take a variety of formats.  We work closely with the building principal and other involved staff to determine if the goal can best be accomplished with a one-time training, a series of trainings, one-on-one mentoring, small group coaching, the development of Professional Learning Teams, modeling of instructional and behavioral management strategies, or simple technical assistance.

Available Services

School Improvement Planning (SIP)

Whether this is your first time developing a school improvement plan or you are an expert, we can help you to ensure that it is a document that both meets state requirements and that serves as a meaningful roadmap for you and your staff.  We can help you during each stage of the process, from data collection to goal setting, to submitting your action plan electronically.  Our consultants are experienced in helping schools with both writing the plan, and with monitoring the progress of its implementation throughout the year.  We can work with an individual or your SIP committee, meeting at your location or ours. For more information about this service, contact us at (815) 744-8334.

Data Analysis for Teaching and Learning

Data analysis for informed decision making and continuous school improvement go hand-in-hand.  Using data analysis to put the spotlight on other areas, school operations, and practices can move a school toward greater degrees of data-informed decision making to achieve higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness.  Our consultants can facilitate a data retreat that will help you to achieve the "fine grain" level of analysis through a collaborative and highly engaged process.  Our consultants can also work on specific projects to provide the data to specific issues that a school may want to investigate.  For more information about this service, contact us at (815) 744-8334.

Effective Leadership Practices

The consultants at the Professional Development Alliance are former teachers, principals, and superintendents who have had great success in those roles and have a desire to share their experience and knowledge with others.  We can work with individual administrators or teacher leaders to improve their leadership skills, or we can work with groups of leaders in a school or district.  All consultations are held in the strictest confidence and can take place at your location or at our offices in Joliet.  Areas of assistance include:

• Facilitation and Meetings - Connect with a PDA consultant who can coach you to a higher level of facilitation skills.  Explore tools and acquire skills that will help you more effectively plan and facilitate your meetings so that participants remain engaged and focused on producing results.  Consultations can be provided for individuals or small groups.  We can custom-design the level of support that is just right to get your meetings running more smoothly and help you reach your target outcomes in less time.  For more information, contact Chris McAfee at (815) 744-8334.
• Blueprints for Effective Team Meetings - One of our PDA Signature Programs, Blueprints for Effective Meetings, is a one-day training that is offered at our location as a public offering or that can be brought to your school or district for your staff.  This training gives participants the tools that they need to maximize planning efforts for facilitating effective meetings.  For more information on this program, contact Chris McAfee at (815) 744-8334.
• Communication Skills - Words.  Every day, every hour, every minute - the world of educators is "word rich."  Yet, words do not necessarily communicate accurate meanings, as they are subject to interpretation by the persons engaged in a conversation.  When what is said influences opinions, arouses negative emotion, or directs decision making, inaccurate interpretation and miscommunication may have serious consequences for effective and efficient educational leadership by administrators and teachers.  Our consultants can customize a half-day or full-day workshop for teachers and administrators to practice and learn verbal communication skills that get to the meaning behind the words, the intent of the conversation, and help the persons involved in a conversation achieve a greater degree of understanding, and perhaps respect and rapport.  For more information, contact us at (815) 744-8334.

Standards and Curriculum

• Curricular Mapping Using SEC - Curricular alignment is one of the major keys to school improvement. While many districts have done traditional curriculum mapping, the Survey of Enacted Curriculum (SEC) offers greater depth and breadth.  The SEC provides graphic detail showing the relationship between the implemented curriculum (what is taught) and the intended curriculum (Illinois Learning Standards and/or College Readiness Standards).  The SEC shows whether there is alignment between the two curricula, the degree that like skills and concepts are emphasized, and the alignment between the cognitive domains (lower or higher order thinking skills).  Overall, the SEC gives schools and districts an extremely rich information package that can bring about closer and better alignment of local, state, and national curricula.  Our consultant can work with school or district personnel to facilitate the preparation, administration, and interpretation of SEC data in ways that prove meaningful to teachers and administrators so that students may reach greater levels of achievement.  For more information, contact us at (815) 744-8334.

• Standards-Aligned Classroom - Would you like to see your teachers work collaboratively to develop, test, and refine effective classroom-level lessons and assessments that not only align to standards but that also reach students?  Would you like to see all your teachers benefit from the team-designed lessons developed over time?  Using the Standards-Aligned Classroom (SAC) model, the PDA can provide you with a coach who can work with teacher teams in your building to facilitate the creation of such as system. We will help your team(s) align instruction and assessment to local and state standards, determine ways to differentiate instruction so that all students reach these standards, and assist with implementing formative assessment strategies that enable them to provide responsive instruction.  These cooperative teams can be an important piece of your long-term strategy for success. Each year, the members of these teams will find their teaching more effective and enjoyable as they fill their repertoires with proven strategies and share them with their colleagues.  This program can be implemented as a single-team or school-wide model.  Forming these teams requires a year-long commitment from you and your teachers. For more information, contact us at (815) 744-8334.

Inservice Offerings

The Professional Development Alliance has developed a talented network of internal and external presenters who are prepared to present a wide range of topics to your teachers and professional staff during Inservice Days.  Let us know the area that you want to target and your goals for the day, and we will and we will assist you.  For more information, please visit our Inservice Offerings web page.

Room Rentals

Schools and districts are welcome to rent one or more of our training rooms or our conference room. Often, schools or districts choose to meet at our location to help the staff involved in the training or work session avoid the distractions that inevitably arise at your own location. Catering services and technology are available.  For more information, visit our Room Rentals web page.