Professional Development Portfolio
Development and Dissemination funded by Indiana Department of Education

The Professional Development Portfolio Project (PDP) assists teachers in developing Individual Professional Development Plans focused on improving student learning. The project is job-embedded and utilizes inquiry, reflective dialogue, technology and best practice research in a standards-based, data-driven process. An individual portfolio documents both teacher and student learning.

This website provides support and resources for those who want to replicate the process in their own schools. While the original process was designed for study groups of approximately twenty K-12 colleagues, the Web site materials will allow any facilitator to adapt the process to fit local needs. Better use of technology in teaching and learning plays a central role in PDP.

PDP is based on the premise that professional development is at its best when it is motivated by and tied closely to student learning goals. In this process, teachers identify areas in their own classrooms that bear improvement. Along with a committed group of trusted colleagues, each teacher designs a personal professional development plan that will help her to create a better learning environment for students and improve student performance in an identified area. Through a variety of strategies, teachers work together to help each other and to reflect on what they are learning individually and collaboratively. The portfolio not only offers individual teachers a variety of methods to document teacher and student learning but also provides a mechanism for sharing that learning with others–thereby tying accountability, evaluation and on-going professional development all together.