The Wisconsin Personnel Development Model (WPDM) is a part of the broader Wisconsin Personnel Development System and provides guidance for local districts to use when designing, implementing, and evaluating a system wide professional development plan as well as individual teacher professional development plans. The WPDM provides a process that focuses on improving student learning and engages all teachers in collective professional development. The model is cyclical and organized into the following three areas (See Figure 1):
The seven steps of professional development include:
- Collecting and analyzing data
- Goal setting for student learning
- Selecting content
- Designing a professional development action plan including training and learning opportunities
- Collaboration and implementation
- Ongoing data collection and analysis (formative evaluation)
- Program evaluation (summative)
The training components that influence the design of professional development:
- Theory
- Demonstration
- Practice
- Feedback
- In-situation coaching
Data-driven school improvement process that incorporates:
- Needs identification and prioritization
- Action plans consisting of strategies and indicators of progress
- Implementation
- Data collection and analysis
The WPDM is a recommended structure intended to provide guidance to districts, schools and individuals as they structure professional development programs targeted at the learning needs of their students. Because the elements of the model are common to improvement efforts that consistently produce student achievement gains, it is recommended that districts and schools structure their professional development programs using the process presented in this document.