To remove Florida's Professional Learning Standards (to move them to a new rule), limit the awarding of inservice points for certain educators for mandatory training not linked to student learning or professional growth, ....

 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

State Board of Education

RULE NO.:RULE TITLE:

6A-5.071Professional Learning Catalog

PURPOSE AND EFFECT: To remove Florida's Professional Learning Standards (to move them to a new rule), limit the awarding of inservice points for certain educators for mandatory training not linked to student learning or professional growth, and add institutions of higher education with a teacher preparation program approved pursuant to s. 1004.04, F.S., as entities eligible to develop and implement a professional learning system and catalog. The effect of this proposal is that organizations may have to amend policies regarding the awarding of inservice points and more entities will be eligible to provide professional learning opportunities to Florida’s teachers.

SUMMARY: The proposed rule sets forth the requirements for professional learning catalogs pursuant to s. 1012.98, F.S., by outlining the requirements for catalog components; setting submission, amendment, and review criteria; identifying the entities eligible to create a catalog; providing specifications for awarding inservice points; and prescribing record maintenance and data reporting requirements.

SUMMARY OF STATEMENT OF ESTIMATED REGULATORY COSTS AND LEGISLATIVE RATIFICATION:

The Agency has determined that this will not have an adverse impact on small business or likely increase directly or indirectly regulatory costs in excess of $200,000 in the aggregate within one year after the implementation of the rule. A SERC has not been prepared by the Agency.

The Agency has determined that the proposed rule is not expected to require legislative ratification based on the statement of estimated regulatory costs or if no SERC is required, the information expressly relied upon and described herein: The proposed rule is not expected to have any adverse impact on economic growth or business competitiveness, or increase regulatory costs or any other factor set forth in s. 120.541(2), F.S., and will not require legislative ratification. This is based upon the nature of the proposed rule, which clarifies the existing requirements and processes for professional learning catalogs.

Any person who wishes to provide information regarding a statement of estimated regulatory costs, or provide a proposal for a lower cost regulatory alternative must do so in writing within 21 days of this notice.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY: 1001.02(1), (2)(n), 1012.56(13), 1012.98(8), 1012.986(3), F.S.

LAW IMPLEMENTED: 1004.04, 1012.56, 1012.575, 1012.98, 1012.986, F.S.

A HEARING WILL BE HELD AT THE DATE, TIME AND PLACE SHOWN BELOW:

DATE AND TIME: March 30, 2022, 9:00 a.m.

PLACE: Collier County School Board Office, 5775 Osceola Trail, Naples, Florida 34109.

THE PERSON TO BE CONTACTED REGARDING THE PROPOSED RULE IS: Abbey Stewart, Bureau Chief, Bureau of Educator Recruitment, Development and Retention, Florida Department of Education; 850-245-9608 or [e-mail].

 

THE FULL TEXT OF THE PROPOSED RULE IS:

 

6A-5.071 Professional Learning Catalogs.

(1) The purpose of this rule is to set forth the requirements for school district professional learning catalogs, formerly known as master inservice plans, pursuant to Section 1012.98, Florida Statutes (F.S.), by establishing standards for high-quality professional learning; outlining the requirements for professional learning catalog components; setting submission, amendment, and review criteria; identifying the entities eligible to create a catalog; providing specifications for awarding inservice points; and prescribing record maintenance and data reporting requirements.

(2) Professional Learning Standards. The standards define Florida’s core expectations for high-quality professional learning systems and opportunities, and form the foundation for school district professional learning systems and catalogs. There are seven (7) standards grouped into five (5) domains (i.e., Foundation, Needs Assessment and Planning, Learning, Implementing, and Evaluating) representative of stages in an improvement cycle. Each standard includes a title, description, and multiple indicators of what the standard may look like in practice.

(a) Domain 0: Foundation. Standard 1: Leadership. Professional learning requires leaders who develop capacity, create support systems, and advocate for professional learning to continually improve educator practice and student outcomes. Examples of this standard in practice include:

1. Setting high standards for educator and student performance;

2. Developing expertise in self and others regarding effective professional learning and leadership;

3. Communicating the importance of high-quality professional learning and its connection to student outcomes;

4. Promoting a culture of professional learning by ensuring policies, structures, resources, calendars, and daily schedules support educators to continuously improve their knowledge and practice; and,

5. Creating a coherent program of learning and leadership development opportunities for growth of all employees.

(b) Domain 1: Needs Assessment and Planning. Standard 1: Professional Learning Needs. Professional learning includes the use of student, educator, and system data to analyze, prioritize, and plan for continuous improvement of educator practice and student outcomes. Examples of this standard in practice include:

1. Continuously analyzing and interpreting multiple types and sources of data (e.g., student performance, discipline, classroom observations, climate surveys) to determine student and educator learning needs and related educator problems of practice;

2. Prioritizing professional learning based on identified student and educator learning needs; and,

3. Developing individual, school, and district learning plans that align professional learning goals to student learning needs.

(c) Domain 1: Needs Assessment and Planning. Standard 2: Professional Learning Resources. Professional learning requires schools and systems to maximize and monitor the use of resources to continually improve educator practice and student outcomes. Examples of this standard in practice include:

1. Determining appropriate curricular resources to support professional learning needs;

2. Prioritizing and aligning fiscal, human, material, technology, and time resources for investment in professional learning;

3. Integrating multiple sources of funding in order to fully support identified professional learning needs; and,

4. Analyzing data collected on resource utilization and impact on desired outcomes to make decisions regarding future allocations.

(d) Domain 2: Learning. Standard 1: Learning Outcomes. Professional learning includes outcomes that ensure intended changes in educator knowledge, skills, dispositions, and practice align with student learning needs. Examples of this standard in practice include:

1. Using identified student learning needs to make decisions about professional learning content and outcomes;

2. Defining clear expectations and learning outcomes that specify what educators need to know and do in relation to educator performance standards; and,

3. Creating coherence by ensuring outcomes build on previous professional learning or knowledge.

(e) Domain 2: Learning. Standard 2: Learning Designs. Professional learning includes use of research- and evidence-based learning designs to continually improve educator practice and student outcomes. Examples of this standard in practice include:

1. Considering the desired outcomes and educator and student learning needs, interests, and experiences in the selection of learning designs;

2. Utilizing face-to-face, online, and blended learning design models that focus on sustained individual, team, and school learning;

3. Enabling educators to construct new, relevant, and personalized learning through processes such as active engagement, modeling, application, assessment, reflection, feedback, and ongoing support;

4. Supporting collaboration among educators to deepen professional practice and foster a sense of collective responsibility for improving student outcomes; and,

5. Engaging in a shared cycle of inquiry, action, research, data analysis, planning, implementation, reflection, and evaluation that drives continuous improvement (e.g., learning communities, Lesson Study, online networks, coaching, mentoring).

(f) Domain 3: Implementing. Standard 1: Implementation of Learning. Professional learning includes multiple opportunities to implement new learning with ongoing support and actionable feedback to continually improve educator practice and student outcomes. Examples of this standard in practice include:

1. Setting clear goals and maintaining high expectations for implementation of learning with fidelity;

2. Sustaining implementation of new learning by providing multiple opportunities for practice in authentic settings with ongoing and varied support (e.g., coaching, modeling, peer groups, co-teaching, co-planning, study groups);

3. Providing opportunities for frequent feedback and reflection to analyze and adjust practice in relation to established expectations; and,

4. Monitoring and assessing the degree of implementation to identify and resolve challenges related to integration of professional learning.

(g) Domain 4: Evaluating. Standard 1: Evaluation of Professional Learning. Professional learning includes formative and summative evaluation of the effectiveness of professional learning in increasing educator knowledge, changing educator dispositions and practice, and improving student outcomes to inform decisions about future professional learning. Examples of this standard in practice include:

1. Developing and conducting a comprehensive plan to evaluate the effectiveness of individual, school, and district plans for professional learning;

2. Monitoring formative educator practice and student learning data to assess professional learning and make adjustments as needed; and,

3. Conducting a summative evaluation at the end of a program to assess the overall impact and make decisions regarding future professional learning.

(3) Professional Learning Catalog Requirements. Pursuant to Section 1012.98(4)(b)5., F.S., all school districts shall maintain, as a corollary of their professional learning system, a catalog that outlines all professional learning opportunities, referred to as components, for all school district employees from all funding sources.

(a) For each component, the catalog shall include the following:

1. A title;

2. An identifying number assigned in accordance with the FDOE Information Database Requirements: Volume II – Automated Staff Information System pursuant to Section 1008.385(2), F.S., and Rule 6A-1.0014, F.A.C.;

3. The maximum number of inservice points to be awarded for successful completion of the component, assigned in accordance with the specifications outlined in subsection (6)(7) of this rule;

4. through 5. No change.

(b) No change.

(3)(4) Submission, Amendment, and Review Criteria.

(a) By September 1 of each year, the school district shall update the catalog, based on the results of the review conducted pursuant to paragraph (3)(4)(d) of this rule, and the district school board shall approve the catalog pursuant to the criteria and procedures in subsections (2)(3) and (3)(4) of this rule.

(b) By October 1 of each year, the school district shall submit a letter to the Commissioner verifying that the district school board has approved the catalog and the catalog meets the criteria in subsection (2)(3) of this rule.

(c) A component developed or modified after the annual approval of the catalog shall be approved as an amendment by the district school board and meet the criteria in subsection (2)(3) of this rule.

(d) Annually, the school district shall conduct a review of the previous year’s catalog program operations that results in a determination of its effectiveness in the educational setting as measured by changes in educator practice and student outcomes, and use this information to make decisions about which components to continue, modify, or eliminate.

(4)(5) The approval of program plans for school district add-on certification programs pursuant to Section 1012.575, F.S., shall be for a period of five (5) years. Professional learning Ccomponents associated with the approved programs shall remain in the professional learning catalog throughout the approval period.

(5)(6) Other Eligible Entities. A developmental research school operated under the control of the State University System;, an eligible state educational agency;, or an organization of private schools or consortium of charter schools that meets criteria specified in Section 1012.98(6), F.S.;, or a public or private college or university with a teacher preparation program approved pursuant to Section 1004.04, F.S., may develop a professional learning system and catalog.

(a) The catalog shall be developed meeting the criteria outlined in subsection (2)(3) of this rule and submitted to the department for initial approval by the Commissioner.

(b) After initial approval of a catalog, continued approval shall be in accordance with the criteria and procedures outlined in subsections (2)(3) and (3)(4) of this rule, and the requirements for reporting and data maintenance as required in subsection (7)(8) of this rule.

(c) For other eligible entities with an approved professional learning system and catalog, references to district school boards in this rule shall mean the director of a developmental research school, or the governing authority or board of an eligible development research school, state educational agency, organization of private schools, or consortium of charter schools, or public or private college or university.

(6)(7) Awarding of Inservice Points. Inservice points awarded for successful completion of a component shall be assigned as follows:

(a) One (1) clock hour of participation shall equal one (1) inservice point, or as specified by the professional learning catalog based on competencies competency(ies) demonstrated, for successful completion of a component.

(b) Points awarded for completion of college credit shall equate to inservice participation as follows:

1. One (1) semester hour of college credit shall equal twenty (20) inservice points; and,

2. One (1) quarter hour shall equal thirteen (13) and one-third inservice points.

(c) Inservice points may be awarded for components that focus on analysis of student achievement data, ongoing formal and informal assessments of student achievement, identification and use of enhanced and differentiated instructional strategies, enhancement of subject content expertise, integrated use of classroom technology that enhances teaching and learning, classroom management, parent involvement, instructional leadership, effective school management, and school safety.

(d) Inservice points for any mandatory component not linked to student learning or professional growth may only be awarded to an educator holding a Florida Professional Certificate with a coverage area classified as “academic” or “degreed career and technical” once during their certificate’s five-year validity period, pursuant to Section 1012.585(3)(g), F.S. Components linked to student learning or professional growth are defined as those that support increased student academic achievement, enhanced classroom instructional strategies that promote rigor and relevance throughout the curriculum, and the preparedness of students for continuing education and the workforce.

(7)(8) Record Maintenance and Data Reporting Requirements. District Pprofessional learning catalog records shall be maintained and data shall be reported as follows:

(a) through (b) No change.

(c) Each school district shall report data information for all approved professional learning components as required by the FDOE Information Database Requirements: Volume II – Automated Staff Information System pursuant to Section 1008.385(2), F.S., and Rule 6A-1.0014, F.A.C. Other eligible entities as defined in subsection (5) of this rule educational agencies, organizations of private schools, and consortiums of charter schools with approved catalogs without automated data reporting capabilities shall report the required component data information using nonautomated equivalent means annually by October 1 of each year.

Rulemaking Authority 1001.02(1), (2)(n), 1012.98(8), 1012.56(13), 1012.986(3) FS. Law Implemented 1004.04, 1012.986, 1012.98, 1012.56, 1012.575 FS. History–New 11-25-75, Formerly 6A-5.72, Amended 4-10-79, 6-28-83, 7-15-84, 12-26-85, Formerly 6A-5.71, Amended 8-28-95, 7-2-98, 5-2-10, 11-28-18,

 

NAME OF PERSON ORIGINATING PROPOSED RULE: Abbey Stewart, Bureau Chief, Bureau of Educator Recruitment, Development and Retention.

NAME OF AGENCY HEAD WHO APPROVED THE PROPOSED RULE: Richard Corcoran, Commissioner, Department of Education.

DATE PROPOSED RULE APPROVED BY AGENCY HEAD: February 17, 2022

DATE NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULE DEVELOPMENT PUBLISHED IN FAR: November 30, 2021