C.L.A.S.S. Professional Development

​The Gateway International School System (Vietnam) has contracted the GLOBAL School Consulting Group to provide comprehensive professional development services to the teachers and instructional leaders of the system’s schools for the 2020-21 school year. 

​​The foundation for the project is the commitment that Edufit and GIS have to delivering world-class education, including high-performance professional learning that ensures the delivery of innovative and trusted education services to its students, faculty, and leadership.

GLOBAL, in turn, is committed to providing a return on investment in professional development that articulates and supports delivering a World C.L.A.S.S. education by providing quality, ongoing professional learning, classroom implementations, and reflection and feedback opportunities that lead to:  
 
CLIMATE and culture throughout the GIS classrooms that embraces communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking, while honoring its cultural identity.  (Dr. Donetrus G. Hill)
 
LEADERSHIP that supports a culture of trust, marked by stronger relationships within GIS organizational leadership, faculty, and staff, as well as with all stakeholders in the GIS community, that meets visible and measurable fulfillment of the Edufit charter, 2025 toast, leadership team statement of accountability, and strategic outcomes. (Dr. Toby A. Travis, Team Leader)
 
ASSESSMENT literacy that promotes and drives teaching and learning decisions that positively impact student achievement and builds capacities of GIS leadership and faculty.  (Karen Bailey)
 
STANDARDS literacy that aids in alignment to instructional best practices and student evaluation, as well as standard-based curriculum design and multi-design integration.  (Janet Hale)
 
SYNERGY among instructional best-practices, data-driven decision making, and teacher and student ownership and efficacy.  (Kjell Fenn)

Based on the expertise of project consultants regarding a best-practice approach for each aspect of delivering a World C.L.A.S.S. education outlined above, the professional development project goal is to:
 
Aid GIS in developing a teaching-learning accountability system that defines and/or refines the relationship among curriculum design, instruction, assessment, and shared climate and cultural values that builds capacity in its instructional faculty and leadership concerning each of the five C.L.A.S.S. focuses. 
 
The kickoff for the professional development initiative took place during the week of August 24, 2020, and the program will continue through August of 2021.  While major components of the program were originally designed to be experienced in person, on the GIS campuses in Hanoi and Haiphong, the shift has been made to virtual training to ensure that each teacher and leader will benefit from the training and coaching provided by the GLOBAL trainers.
 
Project Training / Consulting Team Members
The following consultants serve on the project's strategic professional development team to serve GIS professional learning needs for the duration of the Project.

Karen Bailey, MA, Educational Consultant | Owner, Bailey Educational Consulting | Virtual Learning Author: Assessing to the Core: Understanding Webb’s Depth of Knowledge
Lead Competency: Balanced Assessment Literacy & Design

Kjell Fenn, MEd, Affiliate Consultant | Headmaster, New Covenant Academy, Mansfield, PA | Author, Engage: Motivational Strategies for a Dynamic Classroom 
Lead Competency: Instructional Practice

Janet Hale, MA, Affiliate Consultant | Owner, Curriculum Decisions | Standards Alignment, Curriculum Mapping, & Documenting Learning Specialist | Best-Selling Educational Author, A Guide to Curriculum Mapping,  Educational Leaders’ Guide to Curriculum Mapping, Upgrade Your Curriculum, and A Guide to Documenting Learning                                   
​Lead Competency: Standards Literacy & Curriculum Design

Donetrus Hill, EdD, Senior Consultant | Principal, Dayton Public Schools, Dayton, OH | Senior VP & Principal Analyst, RJH & Associates | Turnaround Schools Specialist | Author, Today’s Prince-Tomorrow's King                             
​Lead Competency: School Culture & Climate

Toby A. Travis, EdD, Executive Consultant | Project Lead Consultant | Superintendent, Village Christian Academy, Fayetteville, NC | Author, The TrustED School Leader: The Bridge to School Improvement | Creator of The TrustED School Leader 360 Assessment                                            
​Lead Competency: Instructional Leadership