Professional Development
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The Public Schools of Brookline believe that every educator should be engaged in continuous growth. To this end, the district provides educators with a broad range of professional learning opportunities. These opportunities include formal coursework, ongoing instructional coaching, collaborative peer support, and informal conversation.
To reach maximum potential for impact, professional development should adhere to the following characteristics as they each support the process of assessing need, constructing new understanding, implementing new learning as appropriate, evaluating impact of new implementation.
- Focus on student learning outcomes.
- Relevancy to learner’s context
- Collaboration across the system
- Integration into core work schedule
- Expectation of continuous improvement
- Examination of Data and Self-Reflection
- Intention to develop internal leadership
The end goal of all professional development is to help facilitate educators' change in practice to improve outcomes for all students. To make this goal a reality we must fundamentally believe that all people in the system are deserving and capable of continuous growth.
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Information for Educators
Professional development is a key component for educators' license renewal process. At the start of each 5-year cycle, educators develop an individual professional development plan (IPDP) in collaboration with their supervisor. The IPDP should include a set of goal statements and a proposal for how the educator will leverage professional development in service of those goals. Supervisors are responsible for approving the goals and the IPDP.
From that point, educators should engage in professional development activities in order to help achieve their professional goals. These activities could be offered internally or externally, and may be a combination of formal courses, or more informal individual or collaborative work.For the specifics necessary to each individual license, educators should consult the Department of Education's section in license renewal.
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Program Administration
Michelle Herman
Senior Director of Teaching and Learning PreK-8
Phone: (617) 730-2354
Email: michelle_herman@psbma.orgGabe McCormick
Senior Director of Teaching & Learning for Secondary Education
Phone: (617) 730-2437
Email: gabe_mccormick@psbma.org
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Professional Development Council
In order to support a robust PD ecosystem, the district maintains a Professional Development council. The council works to improve systems thinking by engaging in dialogue with a variety of stakeholders on the topic of professional learning for all adults within the school system. The council also investigates and assesses the school system’s professional learning needs in light of the district's strategic plan goals while developing a shared understanding as to the criteria for high quality professional learning.
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Induction and Mentoring Overview
In order to support new and novice educators, the district maintains a multi-faceted induction and mentoring program. The program includes an new staff orientation, one on one mentoring during the educator's first year, and group mentoring in subsequent years. The program strives to make the transition into Brookline as smooth as possible covering such topics as best practices, acculturation, reflective practice, and our evaluation process. More information can be found on the dedicated Mentoring & Induction section.
