Professional Development Policies

AALPD focuses its advocacy efforts on sixteen policy statements that support professional development for adult basic education, literacy and ESOL practitioners. Our goal is to promote adoption of policies at national, state and local levels that adequately support the participation of adult basic education, adult ESOL, and adult secondary education practitioners (including paraprofessionals and learner leaders who are staff members) in professional development which will help them be effective teachers, tutors, counselors, and administrators.

• Final version of policies
• Policies matrix with research-based rationale and examples of practice 
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​How were the policies developed?

• Summer 2004: The NIFL-AALPD Discussion List hosted a formal discussion of the NCSALL Research "How Teachers Change," and from that discussion, several PD policy implications emerged.
• Winter 2004: The AALPD Chair created the first draft of the PD policies, based upon what we know from research about policies that could support teachers to access professional development and to do their jobs well.
• January - September 2005: The NIFL-AALPD Discussion List Moderator conducted a survey of state policies, and hosted formal discussions of the draft PD Policies. The PD Policies were available for feedback through the NIFL-AALPD Discussion List and the AALPD website.
• May 2005: The AALPD Executive Board incorporated the field's feedback, and the resulting document was further revised at the AALPD Pre-Conference at COABE in Anaheim, CA.
• July - September 2005: The PD Policy revisions from the AALPD Pre-Conference were made available for feedback and editing in the Adult Literacy Education PD Wiki area:http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Adult_Literacy_Professional_Development
• October 2005: The Executive Board revised the final list of policies upon which AALPD members will indicate whether or not they support the PD Policies.
• November 2005: The Executive Board revised the final list of policies and AALPD members who voted whether to promote the PD Policies indicated overwhelming support. ​

What has AALPD already done with the PD Policies? 

• Presented the policies to the National Coalition for Literacy for consideration in future legislation and funding advocacy;
• Promoted the policies to State Directors, ProLiteracy America, and other Coalition members;
• Disseminated the policy recommendations to the field through the NIFL-AALPD and other discussion lists, at professional development venues, and on the AALPD website.

AALPD will continue policy work by:

• Working with the state adult education directors' organization to include greater support for professional development, teacher pay, and benefits in adult education legislation;
• Developing Issues papers on select policies being developed for the state directors' work on the Hill;
• Seeking examples of successful implementation of PD policies at the state level so that we can provide models to states considering implementing the policies.
• Identifying web-based resources on policy implementation to promote within AALPD membership and strengthen our advocacy activities.