Professional Development, Leadership, and Community
Professional Development, Leadership, and Community
This domain tests the teacher as a reflective, ethical professional who collaborates with colleagues and families. Items cover professional learning, confidentiality, legal responsibilities, communication, and community resources.
Core rules
- Reflective practice: use evidence from student work, feedback, and observation to adjust instruction; reflection is cyclical, not a one-time journal entry.
- Professional learning: PLCs, coaching, mentoring, lesson study, and action research are job-embedded; effective PD is sustained, focused on content and practice, and supported by follow-up.
- Ethics and law: FERPA protects education records; share only with legitimate educational need-to-know. Mandated reporters report suspected abuse. IDEA governs IEPs and free appropriate public education; Section 504 provides access.
- Family partnership: communicate early and regularly, use interpreters and accessible formats, invite input, and respect family funds of knowledge. Epstein’s framework includes parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and community collaboration.
- Leadership: teacher leaders model practice, facilitate data teams, advocate for students, and build community partnerships without overstepping confidentiality.
Worked example
A parent emails asking for another child’s test score “to help my son compare.” The teacher replies warmly but does not disclose the score; she explains that records are private, offers a class-level summary of the learning target, and invites the parent to discuss her own child’s progress. Reasoning: FERPA and professional ethics prohibit sharing another student’s record; the teacher preserves the relationship while giving useful information about the curriculum.
Traps
Do not discuss a student’s IEP in the staff lunchroom; do not promise confidentiality you cannot keep when abuse is suspected; do not treat a parent’s limited English as disinterest; do not replace family communication with a website only.