PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
ORGANIZATIONAL AND REPORTING STRUCTURE
The organizational structure of the professional development plan for the CCBC must tie together and reorganize the vestiges of the three separate campus structures. At the same time, the process should allow for differentiation by each campus. Above all, the plan should allow for considerable constituent input and decision-making so it will be enthusiastically endorsed and supported. Especially important to the success of the new structure will be the coordination of all elements of professional development under each member of the Chancellor's Cabinet.
Professional development programming opportunities occur in four primary categories: programming for the entire College community, campus-specific programming, programming unique to a particular unit and highly individualized development opportunities. Any proposed organizational structure must facilitate activities in all of these primary categories.
An effective professional development program must be closely articulated with the instructional innovation and planning groups of the College and must reflect a consensus-building model of decision making by correlating its planning process with the Learning/Academic Affairs Council, Professional Affairs Council, the Council on Innovation and Student Learning and the various professional development initiatives sponsored by campuses and members of the Chancellor's Cabinet.
This plan recognizes that since college-wide planning and coordination is still in its infancy at the College, more sophisticated organizational structures will follow in later years of the plan's implementation. An initial structure is being proposed in this document with suggestions for future possibilities mentioned later.
For the '99-'00 academic year at the college-wide level, there would be two main bodies which would provide the oversight and coordination necessary for a system as large as The Community College of Baltimore County. While the groups would work cooperatively, each would have a different focus.
Professional Development Team: the implementers of college-wide programming
Each campus President and each of the other members of the Chancellor=s Cabinet with staff development responsibilities would designate a representative to a group of implementers of professional development activities and programs. This group, the Professional Development Team (PDT), will meet prior to the beginning of each academic year to share plans for events with each other and thereafter will meet frequently enough to coordinate inclusion of these events into centralized publications and communications vehicles such as the Orienteer and the Professional Development Web Site. It is essential that this team include all those who have been delegated professional development program implementation roles. One of the primary purposes of the team is the coordination of these various efforts.
Campus representative shall be members of the faculty or classified staff in order that each major constituency group is represented on the Professional Development Team. At the discretion of the Campus President, campus representatives may also be responsible for coordinating the campus professional development program. In such cases, individuals may be given reassigned or overload time to take on these additional duties. The funding for this reassignment or overload shall come from the sponsoring campus.
The PDT will construct a planning calendar with input from the Chancellor's Cabinet. They will design a general plan of professional development activities and look at the overall Cabinet level funds available for these activities. In cases where events can be co-sponsored or coordinated in other ways between campuses or units, every attempt will be made to do so. The calendar of events will be coordinated to allow for maximum participation by all members of the College community. A yearly calendar should be developed as well as monthly updates as necessary. These calendars should be provided to every CCBC employee covered by the plan.
In making decisions about the extent and nature of college-wide vs. campus-wide activities, individually tailored vs. college sponsored events, speakers of workshops, the PDT should work within guidelines and objectives established by the Cabinet. Monies that support specific functions such as the introduction of new technology, learning communities, outcomes assessment, etc. should be incorporated in the guidelines for allocation and implementation from the Cabinet to the team.
As individual implementers of a portion of the college-wide professional development program, each Professional Development Team member will carry out specific assignments, as agreed upon in the yearly plan of offerings. They will seek the counsel of others as needed. Also, each will engage in formative evaluation activities related to their portion of the professional development program and report these results to appropriate groups and individuals.
An institution of the size and complexity of The Community College of Baltimore County needs an advisory group of internal professional development consumers in order to develop a full program of offerings which meets the needs of all faculty and staff learners. This role will be filled initially by the Professional Development Advisory Council (PDAC).
Professional Development Advisory Council: a structured group of consumer advocates
The college-wide Professional Development Advisory Council (PDAC) will be comprised of one staff member, faculty member and administrator from each campus, elected or appointed by the appropriate campus governance structure and one representative each from the college-wide Professional Affairs and Learning/Academic Affairs Councils.
At its first meeting of the academic year, the PDAC will select a member to serve as council chair in order to convene meetings and otherwise facilitate communication among members of the PDAC.
Other responsibilities of the Council are as follows:
-
Review the operational guidelines for the Professional Development Team, making recommendations as necessary
-
Ensure that professional development planning is closely articulated with the Strategic Plan of the College
-
Develop and monitor a needs assessment process to solicit input from CCBC faculty and staff on a regular basis
-
Identify gaps in the yearly plan of professional development activities and services
-
Recommend new professional development activities and services to be included in future offerings
-
Analyze the cost effectiveness of professional development activities and make recommendations about spending alternatives
-
Engage in summative evaluation activities related to the professional development program
-
In undertaking these responsibilities, the PDAC will consider the unique characteristics of the three campuses of The Community College of Baltimore County while simultaneously working toward the unification of the College into a smoothly integrated Learning College.
The PDAC will meet at least once per semester in order to carry out its functions. It is anticipated that at first the PDAC will need to meet more frequently in order to handle these oversight responsibilities in the early years of the implementation of this structure.
Staff assigned to the Professional Development function
In the first year of implementation of this plan, the staffing functions for the PDT and the PDAC will be handled by the Director of Institutional Equity and Organizational Development and the Secretary/Assistant in this office. With the assistance of other members of the Chancellor's Cabinet, this staff member will assist that group in
-
identifying the themes or areas of priority emphasis for professional development for the fiscal year
-
identifying those individuals who will have some assigned staff development planning responsibilities under each Campus President, Vice Chancellor, and other major unit having such responsibilities (the PDT)
-
coordinating the selection or appointment of persons to serve on the Professional Development Advisory Council (PDAC) from appropriate governance structures
-
convening meetings of and otherwise facilitating communication between and among members of the PDT, the PDAC and the Chancellor's Cabinet, as needed
-
communicating about professional development activities to the general college community through various means, including maintaining a professional development web site
Future Staffing
As the professional development program grows in its sophistication, a part-time reassigned position with special program oversight is envisioned. This position would report to the Director of Institutional Equity and Organizational Development. It would be advertised internally college-wide, with applications accepted and reviewed by the PDAC.
Each campus will receive auxiliary enterprise funds for campus-based professional development activities. Therefore, it is expected that appropriate campus plans will be developed and shared with appropriate campus constituencies. Since each campus has varying historical approaches to professional development as well as different needs and different strengths, this plan does not presume to dictate what those specific activities should be. However, in keeping with the issues and concerns identified earlier, appropriate structures including accountability measures should be built into campus-level plans as well as the college-wide plan. Campus presidents may elect to convene new planning groups or committees or work within historic campus structures in order to provide for this accountability. Members of the PDT representing a campus are considered representatives of that campus constituency and will be expected to communicate with that constituency. Further, it is expected that representatives will use the resources of the existing academic and governance structures to implement the campus plans and to develop a reporting of the allocation of campus funds in keeping with the guidelines set by the Chancellor's Cabinet.
Many individual departments or units of the College use operating funds to support learning opportunities for themselves. These activities might include speakers, workshops or the purchase of materials to foster highly specialized, unit-specific learning which may not be available from the College or campus as a whole.
The activities of the Professional Development Team and the Advisory Council shall not deter such efforts. Rather, to the extent possible, resources and ideas should be made available to individual departments to learn about possible speakers, materials and other available tools and products for these purposes. A resource library will be maintained by the Director of Institutional Equity and Organizational Development to support unit level programming.
The learning college demands that staff members have highly specialized responsibilities within a complex college system. It is recommended that every staff member--faculty, classified, and administrators--develop his or her own professional development plan as an inherent part of the Annual Goals and Objectives and, at the end of the academic year, participate in an evaluation of those goals, objectives, and professional development plans. The CCBC budget will provide various avenues for support of individualized professional development plans sufficient to support the following essential efforts for all CCBC employees:
-
Faculty members, who are most directly responsible for providing instructional programs to students, are responsible for the rapidly changing content, methodologies, and theoretical perspectives in their individual disciplines. In addition, faculty are responsible for learning new instructional strategies and technologies. The CCBC budget process will provide the resources necessary to fund the pursuit of individualized goals that directly support excellence in teaching.
-
Classified staff members require individualized professional development plans, particularly to gain access to training in technology, which can be offered through the TLC program or through participation in CCBC computer courses. In addition, classified staff will have available to them opportunities for up-grading job-related skills, for developing career enhancing skills, and for leadership and wellness programs. The CCBC budget process will provide the resources necessary to fund the pursuit of individualized goals that directly support professional and personal development for the classified staff.
-
Supervisory staff may negotiate individualized training opportunities that are unique to a particular role and therefore not efficiently provided by the CCBC for all supervisors. Supervisory staff may or may not have budget support in individual unit accounts to support these needs.
As is currently the case, stipends and reassigned time would be available for individual projects that were identified as urgent for the advancement of LearningFirst. In addition, a variety of workshops would be held in response to common elements identified in the individualized plans of faculty and staff and annual needs assessments, e.g., diversity training; TLC; advising in-service; adjunct faculty orientation; etc. These workshops would be held when and where the Professional Development Team Members in consultation with the Professional Development Advisory Council determined they would be most effective.
Next Page in Plan
