Professional Growth System

Will Graves

The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) Office of Educator Effectiveness (OEE) encourages and supports effective instruction and leadership in public schools by overseeing the Mississippi Educator and Administrator Professional Growth System (PGS).

What makes the PGS unique in its approach to educator professional development is the program’s focus on continuous improvement.

Administered at the school district level, the PGS is geared toward improving student outcomes by going beyond the traditional annual performance evaluation many veteran teachers and administrators may be accustomed to. The key word signifying the PGS’s overarching goal is growth.

“The PGS is designed to improve student achievement by providing teachers and administrators with observations and feedback to inform continuous improvement,” said Dr. Courtney Van Cleve, MDE’s state director for educator talent acquisition and effectiveness.

As a specially designed professional development system for Mississippi’s public educators and administrators, the PGS fosters a collaborative relationship between the educator or administrator and their mentor observer. The program launched in 2016 and has been refined through four feedback-informed phases.

The PGS’s main component is to provide educators with meaningful coaching, actionable feedback and targeted professional learning. This is achieved through evidence-based observations, which help guide constructive feedback that fosters positive professional growth. This component, the heart of the PGS, enables school leaders to assess performance and identify the top priorities for both individual and schoolwide professional learning.

Beyond the observation and feedback aspect of the system, Van Cleve said the PGS also utilizes annually submitted data to inform decision-making at the state level.

“We support the use of effectiveness data in decision-making statewide, such that we ultimately ensure that every school has effective teachers and leaders, which is outlined in goal number four in our State Board of Education strategic plan,” Van Cleve said.

Licensed educators and administrators must receive annual on-the-job performance assessment per the statewide public school accountability standards, so Van Cleve said MDE requires school districts to submit PGS data annually as an indicator of educator and administra-

Left: Dr. Courtney Van Cleve, director of the Mississippi Department of Education’s (MDE’s) Division of Educator Talent Acquisition and Effectiveness, explains the components of the Mississippi Educator and Administrator Professional Growth System (PGS) and their alignment with public school accountability standards during an informational presentation at the Columbus Municipal School District (CMSD). Middle and Right: Members of the CMSD Future Teachers Club participate in professional development to prepare for their future as educators in Mississippi. MDE’s Office of Educator Effectiveness provided expert advice and direction for the students to better understand and receive the most benefit from the PGS.

tor effectiveness.

In the PGS, educators receive multiple observation and feedback cycles per year, with teachers undergoing three observations and administrators undergoing two. Receiving feedback from multiple PGS cycles throughout the year allows educators and administrators to continuously refine their instruction and leadership.

With annual PGS data being gathered in each school district, school leaders can better identify opportunities for improvement on individual, school and district levels. The Columbus Municipal School District (CMSD) has been actively utilizing the PGS from the beginning. Although the initial implementation was challenging, the system has been a game-changer for supporting CMSD educators’ capacity to grow professionally in the art of teaching.

As with any new program or initiative, growing pains are part of the implementation, outcome and feedback cycle, which informs program improvement. As an early adopter of the PGS, CMSD experienced the challenges of getting the growth system functioning smoothly in the early stages of implementation. Once the PGS became more familiar to educators and administrators, the district began to see a shift in overall program acceptance and efficiency, ultimately helping school leaders realize the growth system’s potential to help educators take pause and reflect on their daily practice with board-approved standards and classroom expectations.

The PGS was so well received by CMSD educators and administrators that the MDE OEE was invited to introduce the growth system to the district’s Future Teachers Club, a learning experience the district felt was essential for preparing the next generation of Mississippi educators. The pared-down, informational PGS session acquainted the upper-class high school students with professional development through a continuous improvement model and discussed professional expectations based on state teaching standards.

PGS feedback does more than just facilitate the growth of educators and administrators across the state. School district feedback to MDE about the PGS framework and its delivery makes the system a continuously evolving program that meets the professional needs of educators and administrators in public schools. According to CMSD, it ultimately helps improve student outcomes.

The PGS is grounded in its mission to help educators reflect on their teaching or administration experience by providing observations and continuous feedback that imparts opportunities to grow professionally and become more effective teachers and school leaders. The PGS provides growth at every level of school leadership, and the mentor-like instructional feedback relationship allows administrators and teachers to work collectively to improve student outcomes.