This report outlines for school leaders the findings of an examination of a large sample of CPD provision in England. The study, sponsored by the Training and Development Agency for Schools and undertaken by CUREE, evaluated samples of the offerings of 75 professional development providers - ranging from exam bodies and universities to sole traders - against a framework of quality benchmarks developed by CUREE (based in the international evidence and TDA's own Code of Practice).
The key findings included:
- Overall the majority of provision incorporated the majority of activity recommended by the code, but with variations.
- Areas of strong practice included collaboration, informing participants about the demands of the CPD and assessment/accreditation, eliciting participant feedback and using the outcomes to inform future planning.
- Areas where there was less evidence of practice, or of less developed practice, included needs analysis, supporting teachers to consider the impact of their CPD on outcomes for their learners, and monitoring application, participant and completion data.
- Average charges across providers on the whole reflected the depth of participants’ engagement with professional learning and development the provision was geared towards, but the costs of that provision that individual providers passed onto participants (and so schools) fluctuated greatly.
- In-school provision enabled certain elements of the code to be carried out in more depth, such as aligning the CPD with participant needs and school development, and supporting participants to make the link between their professional learning and their pupils' learning.
The report, written for school leaders, can be downloaded from here (note: requires free registraion) and will also be available in due course from the TDA website.
See also CUREE's SKEIN service to ensure you are equipped to get value for money out of your CPD expenditure