Molly Beverung, a second-year kindergarten teacher in West Bend, works on the Quality Educator Interactive site with T.C. Motzkus, the district’s staff development coordinator.

By Amanda N. Wegner
Teachers, pupil-services professionals and administrators in West Bend schools are utilizing the latest online technology to simultaneously complete their district professional development requirements and Wisconsin’s revised teacher licensing renewal process.

The West Bend School District is the first in the state to set up training and support for district staff to use the online service called Quality Educator Interactive (QEI) to both renew their licenses and meet district goals.

QEI – which is accessible from the Home Page of OnWEAC – is an expansive online resource designed mainly for completing a key element of the new teacher licensing process – the Professional Development Plan (PDP) – and for engaging in other aspects of the license renewal process. Educators can use QEI to write and revise their PDPs and share the plans with review teams for license renewal. QEI also offers an easy way for them to find review team members and professional development opportunities, such as conferences, classes and more.

West Bend has opted to put QEI to double duty by also utilizing it for district professional development requirements. That means that while teachers, pupil-services professionals and administrators are using QEI to help them create their district professional development plans, they are also completing the process that leads to license renewal.

“It’s just so seamless,” said T.C. Motzkus, West Bend’s professional development coordinator. “It is a fantastic tool.”

Under the teacher licensing law known as PI 34, currently licensed teachers may continue to renew their licenses through the old method of completing six semester credits of professional development or by completing a PDP as outlined in PI 34. But West Bend educators are flocking to the PDP process since the district’s internal professional development process moves them well down that road anyway.

The district does not require staff to use the QEI in meeting district requirements but it does encourage and support them in doing so. As a result, Motzkus estimates about 95% of West Bend’s staff are using QEI to document professional growth.

“What we’re doing here in West Bend is pretty rare, and I feel very lucky to have the ongoing support to continue the journey as we hire more than 30 new-to-district teachers each year,” Motzkus said.

‘One-stop shop’
QEI was designed as a “one-stop shop” where educators can securely and confidentially store license renewal projects, resumes and transcripts – everything needed to create PDPs and fulfill the requirements of PI 34.

QEI is managed by the University of Wisconsin Extension and was founded jointly by WEAC, the WEA Professional Development Academy (PDA), the UW System, UW-Extension, Association of Wisconsin School Administrators, and the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators.

It went live in the summer of 2005. As of September 15, QEI had more than 2,000 users, of which about 1,500 were WEAC members.

QEI is available to all educators statewide, but no district is making greater use of it than West Bend, which believes strongly in PDPs.

“Regardless of the educator’s licensure level, having a structured format for creating and revising the professional development plan has provided increased communication between vertical teams, grade levels and with administrators who can then support the goal statements with various resources,” Motzkus said.

In a handout given to district staff when West Bend’s Internal Professional Growth Plan initiative was launched a few years ago, the benefits were summarized as follows: “In addition to individual professional growth, the district will benefit from the implementation of PDPs through heightened attention to the research on best-practice strategies, the focus on student achievement, and the alignment of educator and pupil service standards to goals.”

Having PDPs in place will also help generate data for grant processes, as many state and federal grant programs some districts participate in – including SAGE, Title I and Title VI – are calling for an increased focus on staff professional development and the connection between that professional development and district goals.

The process of creating a professional development plan is also beneficial to teachers who wish to pursue National Board Certification.

‘Our own professional development’
In West Bend, staff will complete their internal PDPs over a three-year period. By the end of the first quarter of the school year, all staff in the district will share their professional goals and progress with their administrators so that their administrators are aware of their goals and can support them in achieving their goals with resources, attendance at conferences, and leadership opportunities. They meet again near the end of the school year.

“We are all responsible for our own professional development, and more importantly, the development and education of our students,” Motzkus said. “These internal plans help us communicate systemically, so the team can support our goals.”

Molly Beverung, a kindergarten teacher at West Bend’s Decorah Elementary School, has become a big fan of the QEI.

“It’s just so easy to use,” Beverung said. “The way it’s broken up, it’s not overwhelming. You can go back and make changes and get your thoughts down in a clear, organized way.”

Getting online with QEI is easy, thanks to step-by-step video tutorials that show how to create a quality plan. The West Bend School District’s Web site provides easy access to the QEI, and the district assists educators with each of the steps.

Creating her PDP online, Beverung said, has benefited her as a teacher.

“What I learned is to be as specific as possible. Now that I have (my PDP) done and am teaching, I have different parts of it at the back of my mind, so I’m always thinking about how to apply my goals to my students and classroom and looking for evidence to support my goals,” Beverung said. “Working and planning ahead has become very beneficial to my teaching.”

Setting the precedent
Motzkus said the idea for using the QEI in West Bend goes back to 2004 when she attended a Wisconsin Association for Curriculum and Development conference where WEAC’s Teaching & Learning Director Char Gearing, Teaching & Learning Consultant Ron Jetty and UW-Extension’s John Fischer gave a progress report on the QEI. Though Motzkus had long had the idea of a PDP initiative, she envisioned the opportunities possible when she heard that QEI update.

“At that point (after the 2004 conference), we went from having background knowledge of the tool to implementation vision,” Motzkus said. “The PDP process was not just for Initial Educators anymore,” she said, referring to the first of three levels of teacher licensees under PI 34.

Coming on board
While West Bend may have set the precedent for promoting and using QEI, other districts may not be far off. Fischer, director of K-12 services for UW-Extension, said he has completed trainings in the De Forest and Janesville districts and believes that De Forest will adopt the QEI for Initial Educators.

Within three years, he said, he expects that QEI will have 10 times as many members it does now.

“QEI offers everything in one place,” Fischer said. “Right now only Initial Educators have to use this, but as more educators see the value in the PDP process as opposed to the six-credit option, it will take off.”

Motzkus agreed: “I believe more districts will start to use QEI as a tool,” she said. “It’s just so user-friendly.”

For districts that want to follow in West Bend’s footsteps – whether it’s encouraging use of the QEI or getting all staff to create and store their PDPs online regardless of the license status – Fischer suggests starting with the district’s professional development coordinator.

“They have the most amount of information,” Fischer said.

Motzkus added that going to each of her district’s 12 buildings was helpful in bringing everyone on board. In those presentations, she explained the steps in the process and how to document activities and gave examples and tips on how to write quality goal statements.

Ongoing support is also critical, Motzkus said. Beverung agreed.

“It’s beneficial to work with others who have done it before,” Beverung said. “The insight they can give is unmatched.”

It’s also important to bear in mind that the basic principles behind PDPs – and using the QEI as a tool to facilitate that process – aren’t new. It’s just a new way to document and organize something educators have been doing for years.

“Basically, it’s trying to connect the dots,” Motzkus said. “Most educators already have the necessary criteria to complete the steps of the PDP by their leadership roles within the district, such as serving as committee chairs and implementing research-based strategies in their classroom. The QEI gives everyone a common place to document their ongoing professional development and support each other in achieving their goals – it’s a win-win for everyone in our learning community.”

Posted September 28, 2006