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Woodstock CUSD 200 outlines staff-led professional development series with digital badges
Summary
District staff described a new, staff-delivered professional development (PD) program that offers continuing training, salary-schedule credits and digital badges; courses target reading, content-area literacy, strategies for English learners and the science of reading.
At a Woodstock CUSD 200 meeting, a district staff member described a new in-house professional development series that gives teachers classroom-practice assignments, continuing training units and salary-schedule credit.
The staff member said participants complete coursework, apply the strategies in their own classrooms, and share results with colleagues. "The participants receive credits, on the salary schedule where they can receive additional pay, and then they also get CTUs," the staff member said.
District staff identified four core courses in the first offering: structured discussion strategies for classroom engagement; Critical Reading for Content-Area Teachers; methods for teaching multiple learners (targeting the district's roughly 20% English-learner population); and an elementary-focused science-of-reading course covering phonics, word recognition and comprehension. Courtney Herron, a reading coach at Creekside, is teaching the critical-reading course; Katie Vasquez, the district's dual-language coach, is teaching the course on strategies for English learners; and Joanna, an administrator, is teaching structured discussion. The staff member said the district prioritized using in-house instructors and has worked with external partners in the past.
The district said this is the first iteration and staff plan to survey participants to collect feedback and expand offerings next year. The staff member also described a plan to issue digital badges for each course to document teacher learning and signaled interest in adding future topics such as trauma-informed practices, social-emotional learning and advanced content areas.
Discussion at the meeting emphasized using existing staff expertise to lead courses and tracking participant interest to determine future offerings. No formal board action or vote on the PD program was recorded in the transcript.
The district did not provide enrollment caps, course lengths, specific salary-schedule credit amounts, or an enrollment timeline in the transcript; those details were described as "to be determined" or "not specified."
