2023 PDF Network

In January of 2020 the NCCCS CCR unit created the PDF Network and gave an additional allocation to all Title II providers who expressed a desire to participate in the project. This application serves as the announcement that the PDF Network will resume in 2023.

The PDFN is a faculty-led professional development initiative to develop a local needs-based professional development plan that focuses on classroom and instructional strategies to improve and accelerate student progress to meet their career goals. A basic tenant of the PDF Network is that an effective professional development plan needs to provide for continuous improvement and be based on needs of faculty. The PDFN engages faculty, at the local level, to reflect on and develop instructional strategies and knowledge to support students’ accelerated progress to credential attainment. The goal of the project is to identify instructors across NC to serve as the Professional Development Facilitator and create a network of professionals whose purpose is to improve teaching and learning in a collaborative community.

The NCCCS, CCR unit will allocate funding to each program to appoint a Professional Development Facilitator who will lead the professional development planning and meet with other PDFs to share research-based practices and resources. The PDF will develop a local onboarding professional development system, complete the intensive train-the-trainer Standards-in-Action Virtual Institute (SIAVI) on Cultivating a Language and Content Focus for English Learners during March – June of 2023 for the purpose of becoming an SIAVI trainer at their local organization, and mentor novice instructors on best practices to encourage students to earn a credential while continuing to work on their basic skills.

PDFs agree to the following deliverables:

1. Participate fully in the Professional Development Facilitator Network, to include monthly meetings, coaching, and reporting,
2. Develop and submit to the state professional development team a local onboarding professional development system for new instructors,
3. Attend one face-to-face state office training in February 2023, one face-to-face end of project meeting in June 2023, and monthly virtual meetings,
4. Complete the intensive train-the-trainer Standards-in-Action Virtual Institute (SIAVI) Cultivating a Language and Content Focus for English Learners during March – June 2023 with the goal of replicating the Standards-in-Action Virtual Institute on Cultivating a Language and Content Focus for English Learners at their local programs in the future,
5. Observe and mentor novice instructors on best practices to encourage students to earn a credential while continuing to work on their basic skills,
6. Attend the national Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE) Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, April 2 – 5 2023, if at all possible,
7. Share state and national training opportunities at their local programs,
8. Develop at least one in-person or virtual training for their local programs based on best-practices learned at the 2023 COABE conference,
9. Complete and submit to the state office via the lead consultant one quarterly report and one end-of-year presentation reflecting the outcomes of the Professional Development Facilitator Project at their local programs.

Program Directors agree to the following activities:

1. Identify and submit to the state office the name of one instructor who will be designated as the Professional Development Facilitator at their institution.
2. Develop a budget to be submitted in January 2023. Funds will be limited to paying for only the following categories on the NCCCS-2-34 Budget Form Line Items: A, B, C, D, E, & J.

In order to receive the funding allocation of $30,000, providers must complete and submit the very brief, non-competitive Application Requesting Funding for the 2023 AEFLA PDF Network form. All Title II programs who submit an application will become members of the PDF Network and will receive the additional allocation upon State Board Approval in January. The application must be submitted by 5:00 pm Wednesday December 21, 2022.

Here is a brief description of the Standards-in-Action Virtual Institute – Cultivating a Language and Content Focus for English Learners:

During August 2021 North Carolina sent a cohort of instructors to the Standards-in-Action Virtual Institute offered through a grant from OCTAE. The NC instructors thoroughly enjoyed the SIA virtual institute and frequently commented that it was the best virtual training that they had ever attended. Last March we replicated the SIAVI for a group of 24 adult ed instructors in North Carolina. It was presented by four state coaches who were members of the cohort that attended the national SIAVI training in 2021.

The highly participative virtual training will be offered as a series of ten two-hour workshops which will include a mix of large and small group activities focused on how to design instruction for English learners (both ESL and ABE learners) that addresses two critical needs: language and content development. Participants will spend the majority of the workshops

collaborating in small groups with their SIA coach to create standards-based English lessons. Participants will experience a model English language arts/literacy lesson designed for English learners. They will explore both assorted research-based, instructional activities to engage ELs in the content while promoting language development as well as instructional activities to engage ELs in robust levels of discourse and reasoning about content.

The goal of training the PDFs on SIAVI is to create a SIAVI Coach at every Title II program. Identified PDFs will be expected to become train-the-trainers who will teach the best practices and techniques taught throughout the institute to CCR instructors at their local programs

We plan to offer the SIA Virtual Institute to the identified PDFs in two cohorts. Identified PDFs will have a choice of attending the Virtual Institute in either March or April-May. The March cohort will be held on these dates: February 28, March 2, 7, 9, 14, 16, 21, 23, 28, & 30. The April-May cohort will be held on these dates: April 11, 13, 18, 20, 25, 27, May 2, 4, 9, 11, 16, & 18. PDFs must commit to attending all ten of the live virtual workshops held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:00 – 4:00 during their cohort. The Virtual Institute will also include some activities to be completed independently during the week and submitted through Moodle. Following the Virtual Institute each PDF will be assigned one of the state trainers to coach them as they put into practice in their classrooms the techniques taught during the virtual institute. PDFs will be expected to spend up to two hours a week working with their assigned coach both synchronously via Zoom or Teams and asynchronously via Moodle.

Files
PDF Network Information Session Presentation
pdfnbudget-form-1.xls