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Why Is Professional Development? Essay

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Why is Professional Development (PD) critical to teacher preparation? Because Special Education Teachers are expected to teach aligned with the CCSS in their classrooms, it would be expected that they be part of some knowledge-based community that could enlighten them on evidence-based practices for delivering the core content to special education learners according to CCSS. Many teachers were already trained and out of IHE when the CCSS came into effect and many IHE are not on par with aligning their programs to accommodate CCSS; it is up to administration to ensure that teachers are educated on how to deliver instruction to meet the needs of the learners according to the new standards. Here is where professional development becomes crucial to the successful implementation of the CCSS. As a result, all educators (teacher educator, teachers, other staff members) at all levels of the education system requested professional growth targeted explicitly on those skills that will help them to successfully implement the CCSS (Massell & Perrault, 2014; peter, 2013).

Often in my teaching circle (graduate teachers with more than 5 years experience), teachers’ main concern is that they are not adequately prepared or trained to teach to the level that the CCSS are asking, especially teachers of upper grades and of those with students with learning disabilities in their class. Therefore, administrators are faced with the challenge of including more professional development sessions

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