Missouri

Professional development system

Missouri’s Adult Education and Literacy Professional Development Center (MAEL PDC) is a statewide agency hosted by North Central Missouri College and serves over 1,200 AEL administrators and teachers. The MAEL PDC provides various activities for beginning, intermediate, and experienced AEL professionals in a variety of delivery models.

Missouri’s professional development for AEL professionals is mandated and regulated by The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Teacher Certification Office. Missouri’s AEL professionals are required to go through a series of workshops and activities, including a Pre-Certification Workshop, Beginning Teacher’s Assistance Program, two-year mentoring program, and yearly performance-based teacher evaluations and to accumulate at least 20 hours of professional development a year. The MAEL PDC provides numerous activities in various delivery systems to meet the AEL professionals’ needs. Non-MAEL PDC activities can also be requested to the State AEL office for approval.

STAR implementation

Missouri selected eight programs to participate in the STAR pilot phase. Several criteria items were agreed upon by the State Leadership Team to use for selection of these programs. The criteria included

• Show an openness to change.
• Review of local data shows need.
• Have a Supplemental Literacy Program.
• Assign a teacher or teachers to the project, committed to intermediate reading instruction.
• Establish an intermediate-level reading class.
• Establish the class as a managed enrollment class.
• Director, Teacher and Literacy Coordinator committed to attend all three workshops and implement the project in its entirety.
• Ensure teachers have weekly planning time.
• Willingness to allow teachers time to meet with other STAR teachers to plan, share resources, and observe each other’s classrooms.
• Allow Technical Assistance and Monitoring Team access to class site.
• Promote STAR to other programs.

Missouri is attempting to involve local program low-level literacy staff in the STAR process in the hopes the project components will not only impact literacy level student outcomes in addition to intermediate-level student outcomes, but allow for a smooth transition of these students into the intermediate levels of instruction.

The pilot project ended in December, 2008. The data collected showed that of the pilot projects, there was a 16 point increase in the intermediate level attainments from the previous year for these local programs.

Missouri invested in the State Trainer Certification process in 2009 for three trainers. All three completed the year long process and trainings began across the state.

To date, 39 of the 44 local programs have had staff trained in STAR with over 225 of the 740 teachers in the state going through the training.

Programs implementing STAR

Local Programs currently operating STAR Reading classes:

The following programs have staff trained and intent to establish STAR Reading classes this program year: