Money Talks

After nickel and diming their investment in professional development for years, officials in Flint, Mich., have decided to put their money where their mouth is. They hope to plot a way to revolutionize student learning by thinking creatively about staff training.

Flint, Mich.

Jeff Bean speaks slowly and evenly, his words anchored in bass tones that inspire thoughtful reflection, not passion. But there's no mistaking what this mild-mannered, 40-year-old high school social-studies teacher is saying. He is talking about mutiny.

A year ago, school officials here discovered that their patch-work of professional development--workshops, seminars, conferences, in-services, and other ad hoc training--was costing a fortune. The professional-development department itself spent less than $300,000 a year. But the district's total investment climbed to nearly $13 million--or about 6 percent of its annual budget--when the number crunchers pooled the pockets of staff-training dollars scattered throughout the budget.

Now, Bean is one of the leaders of the district's effort to put that money to better use. In a seemingly endless round of meetings over the next year, educators hope to plot a way to revolutionize student learning by revolutionizing professional development. The blueprint so far calls for central-office staff to turn much of the control and money for staff training over to school principals and teachers themselves. Academic standards that teams of parents, educators, and administrators will devise would guide staff training, not the dictum of a central-office bureaucrat. Indeed, Flint aims eventually to dismantle its whole...