Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit. ~ John Steinbeck
Providing relevant, learner-centered professional development is essential for any school district that wishes to improve teacher retention and student outcomes. That said, budgeting for professional development can be a challenge because the money to pay for it often comes from a variety of buckets.
At Alludo, we don’t think budgeting for professional development should be complicated, and we also don’t believe that professional development needs to be expensive to be effective. With that in mind, let’s talk about the four steps to create an accurate district-wide budget for PD.
Perhaps the biggest challenge of creating an accurate professional development budget is that most school districts don’t have a comprehensive PD bucket in their budget in the first place. That doesn’t mean money isn’t available. Rather, it means that the money doesn’t have a PD label.
When you’re trying to evaluate the effectiveness of your existing professional development model and compare costs to make an informed decision about partnering with a new provider, it’s essential to break out your costs, regardless of where they’re hiding in your budget.
PD funds are often allocated in an array of areas because leading educators know that prioritizing spending in these areas will benefit teachers and students. Here are some of the places you can find PD funds in your budget:
Alludo has created a budgeting tool to help school districts identify money that’s currently used – or could be used – for professional development.
Considering the potential impact of professional development on everybody who plays a role in education, including teachers, paraeducators, administrators, and students, it’s easy to see why it’s essential to identify funds to spend on PD and spend them wisely to get the best possible result.
There are four basic steps that can help you create a district-wide professional development budget.
Step one is to look at your current system of professional development and evaluate it in terms of cost and results, as well as its future potential. This breaks down into four areas, as follows:
This analysis step is essential because it will help you identify areas for improvement and savings.
Once you have a handle on your existing professional development, the next step is to look at your district goals and identify the areas that are most important to you. Some examples might include the following:
Make sure that your goals are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. You must be specific, so that you can track your progress and adjust your PD as needed.
With your goals in place, your next step is to research your options for improving your district’s professional development.
One of the biggest choices you’ll make is between asynchronous and synchronous PD. Synchronous PD consists of traditional classroom instruction. By contrast, asynchronous PD happens online and courses and course materials may be available at any time.
Adoption of asynchronous professional development is an effective way to give teachers a choice in what and how they learn while getting better results and saving money.
As we have already noted, the money to pay for PD can come from multiple sources within your existing budget. As a reminder, these include the following:
If you do step one, then you’ll already have this information at your fingertips and you can decide where and how to allocate funds to pay for your new system of professional development. You can use our free quote calculator to get your Alludo quote.
Alludo specializes in creating quality online, asynchronous learning environments that help school districts save money while retaining good teachers and meeting their goals.
Our new budgeting tool focuses on providing school districts with professional development that meets our LEMUR learning model:
We believe that by giving teachers a choice and a voice, school districts can provide relevant, engaging professional learning that teachers love, while also saving money and meeting their district goals.
Budgeting for professional development can be challenging, but the guidelines we’ve provided here can help you get a handle on your existing spending and update your professional development program to support teachers, improve student outcomes, and save money at the same time.
Want to reach up to 100% PD in your district? See how Alludo can help make it happen with our free professional development platform trial, including: