School employees: professional growth.

Existing law requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to establish standards and procedures for the issuance and renewal of teaching credentials. Existing law expresses the Legislature's intent to encourage teachers to engage in an individual program of professional growth that extends a teacher's content knowledge and teaching skills. Existing law provides that an individualized program of professional growth may consist of specified activities and courses. This bill would require a local educational agency, as defined, that offers a program of professional growth for teachers, administrators, paraprofessional educators, or other classified employees involved in the direct instruction of pupils, to evaluate professional learning that meets based on a specified list of criteria, including, that it is based on an needs assessment of the needs of educators and tied to supporting pupil learning, and would encourage local educational agencies to choose professional learning that meets any of the listed criteria. The bill would specify various activities that may be included as professional learning activities, including collaboration time for teachers to develop new instructional lessons.