National Staff Development Council Standards Assessment Inventory: Summary Report of Instrument Development Process and Psychometric Properties

The National Staff Development Council (NSDC) contracted with the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) to develop a new NSDC standards assessment instrument. This request was in response to a series of questions over the years about the psychometric properties of the old instrument and NSDC’s desire to update it. SEDL’s Evaluation Services (ES) agreed to develop a reliable and valid staff development assessment instrument aligned with NSDC’s standards for quality professional development. The instrument is to be completed by teachers and other school staff and is intended to measure the degree to which a school’s professional development program adheres to the standards.

Schools across the nation were informed of the instrument development via NSDC’s web site and other communications and were given the opportunity to volunteer to participate in one of three pilot studies of the instrument. In each pilot study, twenty schools were selected to participate, totaling 60 schools and hundreds of educators. Each of the schools that participated was rated by an individual with extensive knowledge of the NSDC standards, and knowledge about the professional development program at the pilot school.