ELA Professional
Development: A
New Perspective
A school district
leverages teacher
librarians to address
student literacy needs
20
Leadership
“What is your primary instruc- economy, and participate in civic life. The
tional goal for English Language Arts?” CCSS ELA require a rigorous and relevant
This is a question I asked twelve different instructional program that focuses upon the
site and district administrators in six dif- development of critical thinking and prob-
ferent school districts located throughout lem solving, creativity, and communication
California for a research study I conducted and collaboration skills across the curricular
in 2017. I developed this study to examine areas of ELA, history/social science, science,
why California K–12 public school adminis- and technical subjects. Writing, research,
trators distribute instructional leadership re- and the reading of complex texts are strongly
sponsibilities to either instructional coaches emphasized. Clear learning benchmarks for
or teacher librarians and how the two roles each grade level also require the use of tech-
compare within the context of the imple- nology to access, evaluate, synthesize, and
mentation of the California Common Core communicate information (California De-
State Standards: English Language Arts & partment of Education [CDE], 2012, 2013,
Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, 2015a; Parkay et al., 2014).
and Technical Subjects. Without fail, every
Need for professional development
administrator echoed a similar version of the
In 2012, the CDE released the Common
following response: “Our goal really is lit-
eracy and really increasing the literacy rate Core State Standards Systems Implementa-
for our students, identifying where they are tion Plan to provide schools with guidance
when they enter with us and having them in developing local CCSS ELA implemen-
exit better.” This response is directly related tation plans. The plan specifically indicates
to the 2010 adoption of the CCSS ELA, that strong instructional leadership and
which require students to develop higher well-prepared teachers are essential for suc-
levels of skills and abilities than in previous cess. Seven guiding strategies are outlined,
iterations. These standards were designed to the first of which highlights the need for
enable students to successfully meet college
and career expectations, compete in a global By Melanie A. Lewis, Ed.D.