1. What is the role of a district representative on a Professional Certificate candidate’s Professional Growth Team?

2. How does a district representative’s involvement benefit the district?

3. Who else is on the Professional Growth Team and what are their roles?

4. How does the principal/district representative maintain a balance when serving as both a Professional Growth Team member and as the candidate’s evaluator?

5. How much time does it take to serve on a Professional Growth Team?

6. What are the responsibilities of a district representative?

7. Who can serve as a district representative?

8. Is there an official document that the district representative needs to sign?

9. I’ve heard that Professional Growth Team members can earn clock hours for participating.  Is this true?

What is the role of a district representative on a Professional Certificate candidate’s Professional Growth Team?

The district representative contributes information to help the candidate align his or her personal professional development goals with the broader perspective of the school or the school district. 

The district representative serves as a member of the Professional Growth Team to help the candidate select 3 to 5 Professional Growth Plan goals.  Through this process the district representative has the opportunity to influence the candidate’s choices and when satisfied with the selections, signs a document titled the Professional Growth Plan.

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How does a district representative’s involvement benefit the district?

The candidate who develops plans that are congruent with School Improvement or District-level Strategic Plans will align personal growth with goals supported by school administrations.  Everyone wins when the teacher’s professional development and school plans are united. 

The benefit to the school district is therefore twofold.  First, the district representative on the Professional Growth Team is in a key position to encourage the selection of goals that support school improvement plans and second, adherence to Professional Certificate Standards and Criteria should improve student performance – and that’s the ultimate goal of all schools.

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Who else is on the Professional Growth Team and what are their roles?

Each team has four members:  a university representative, the candidate, a colleague of the candidate, and a district representative.  Each member collaborates with the candidate as the Professional Growth Plan is developed to provide their own perspective on high-value goals for the candidate.

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How does the principal/district representative maintain a balance when serving as both a Professional Growth Team member and as the candidate’s evaluator?

District representatives help the candidate select goals and sign Professional Growth Plans, but do not have responsibility for monitoring progress toward those goals.  Candidates report progress to a representative from the sponsoring university.  The program was designed to have a firewall between the candidate’s performance in the Professional Certificate Program and annual teacher evaluations.

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How much time does it take to serve on a Professional Growth Team?

The Professional Growth Team is made up of four members:  a university representative, the candidate, a colleague of the candidate, and a district representative.  Each member of the team must be consulted as the Professional Growth Plan is developed, but all four members do not need to meet in the same room at the same time.  Sometimes consultation occurs face-to-face, sometimes by way of e-mail exchanges, and sometimes by telephone.

The time commitment may be just a few minutes or in challenging situations it may take more than one conversation to identify goals.

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What are the responsibilities of a district representative?

Responsibilities of the district representative are to collaborate with the candidate to select appropriate professional development goals and to sign the Professional Growth Plan.  Some administrators may be invited to review a candidate’s portfolio evidence at the end of the program and that occurs when the candidate volunteers to share those documents and the district representative wants to see the results of the collection of evidence.

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Who can serve as a district representative?

The district representative should be the principal or the principal’s designee.  The key characteristic of the district representative should be an understanding of school improvement goals and/or the district’s strategic plans.

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Is there an official document that the district representative needs to sign?

The only official document that requires the district representative’s signature is the candidate’s Professional Growth Plan.  Candidates must identify 3 to 5 goals and most candidates write each goal on a separate form – requiring 3 to 5 signatures.

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I’ve heard that Professional Growth Team members can earn clock hours for participating.  Is this true?

Yes, ten clock hours are available to district representative members of the Professional Growth Team.  Clock hours may be requested by submitting a Professional Growth Team Consultation and Collaboration form to Western's Certification Officer once consensus has been reached on the candidate’s Pre-Assessment Professional Growth Plan.  A PGT member may earn a maximum of 20 clock hours per year if he or she is a member of more than a single team. 

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