Green Mountain Forest Collaborative Holds Professional Development Institute 

Educators from five supervisory unions gathered at the Randolph Union High School on March 6 to participate in the First Annual Green Mountain Forest Collaborative Professional Development Institute. Over 500 elementary, middle, and high school educators attended the sessions, which were presented by Measured Progress. Participants learned strategies to achieve school improvement by focusing on high-quality classroom assessments and the shared examination of student work. 

The Green Mountain Forest Collaborative comprises the Orange North, Orange Southwest, Orange Windsor, Washington South, and Windsor Northwest supervisory unions. Its goal is to find ways for the five supervisory unions to work together to support each other, according to Brent Kay, superintendent of the Orange Southwest Supervisory Union. Kay noted that this is the first time the districts have come together for a common professional development event. A large session such as this one enables all educators across the supervisory unions to reach a common level, he said. 

Elaine Pinckney, Vermont’s deputy commissioner of education, gave an opening address commending the supervisory unions for their collaborative efforts and relating the State Board of Education’s Strategic Plan to the districts’ work in school improvement. She praised the event’s focus on formative assessment, stating that, “It is clear that it is formative assessments that provide you, the teachers, with the information you need to improve instruction.” 

Prior to the event, Catherine Garrison of Measured Progress spent two days training 25 educators—five from each district—as “facilitators,” who assisted during the presentations and will be able to continue building staff capacity in their schools. Educators attended two sessions during the full-day event. “Examining Student Work,” presented by Garrison, introduced participants to the process of forming learning teams, in which educators meet to discuss, critique and offer suggestions to other educators regarding the papers, tests, quizzes, and projects that students produce every day. Through these learning teams, teachers are able to share with each other what works and provide help with what doesn’t. 

Dennis Chandler of Measured Progress presented “Classroom Assessment,” a session designed to introduce educators to the basics of choosing the most effective assessments to meet different needs. This session also helped participants through the process of creating high-quality student assessments themselves. Chandler said that gathering so many educators together was a way for the five districts to “create a common line to build future activities to improve their schools.” He called the sessions a “very important first step in that process.” 

Facilitator Erica McLaughlin said she found the learning team approach, “very exciting” and “very applicable to what the district is doing as far as looking at student work and having common language among the different teachers.” Lorinda Stone, another facilitator, added “I really do like the emphasis on the fact that testing shouldn’t just be summative . . . you should be assessing and looking at student work across the whole year.” 

Although the First Annual Professional Development Institute has come and gone, the learning process is not over for the hundreds of educators who attended. Each district will continue to work with educators, helping them to gain more experience in the concepts they were introduced to this week. 

“The institute provided foundational support across the region by creating a common understanding of key classroom assessment practices,” Garrison said. She called the process, “exciting to see,” and added that, “As each district determines its path for implementation while building on current initiatives, the impact on teaching and learning within the five districts will become more evident.”