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	Regional Keys (hover mouse over region for contact information) Central Central Regional Key 2138 Lincoln Street Williamsport, PA 17701 Ph: 800-346-3020 Fax: 570-323-7510 John LaRose, Director Northeast Northeast Regional Key 1520 Hanover Avenue Allentown, PA 18109 Ph: 800-528-7222 Fax: 610-437-6500 Raine Neal, Director Northwest Northwest Regional Key 3823 West 12th Street Erie, PA 16505 Ph: 800-860-2281 Fax: 814-836-9615 Elana Shively, Director PA Key Pennsylvania Key 301 Market Street, 8th Floor Harrisburg, PA 17101 Ph: 800-284-6031 Fax: 717-213-0585 Gail Nourse, Director South Central South Central Regional Key 13 West Market Street York, PA 17401 Ph: 800-864-4925 Fax: 717-843-4158 Maureen Murphy, Director Southeast Southeast Regional Key 1500 S. Columbus Blvd, 2nd Floor Philadelphia, PA 19147 Ph: 877-660-2273 Fax: 215-271-1607 Debra Lawrence, Director Southwest Southwest Regional Key 305 Wood Street Pittsburgh, PA 15222 Ph: 877-349-4850 Fax: 412-255-1178 Nedra Perkins, Director

 

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WHAT IS A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM? (cont'd)

3.  QUALITY ASSURANCES:

A.   PQAS and Technical Assistant (TA) Consultants

The Pennsylvania Quality Assurance System (PQAS) is designed to certify individuals who provide professional development opportunities or technical assistance to early childhood professionals in the Commonwealth.  PQAS approved instructors and TA consultants develop and deliver professional development offerings or technical assistance to practitioners that meet Keystone STAR standards, DPW professional development hours and are aligned with the CBK and PDR.

• PQAS instructors or TA Consultants are approved for one of three categories, Certified Instructor or Certified Consultant; Affiliate Instructor; and Specialty Discipline Instructor or Specialty Discipline TA Consultants.

• The Pennsylvania Quality Assurance System (PQAS) maintains a registry of approved instructors to help ensure that professional development and technical assistance activities meet quality standards

• All applications for PQAS instructors or TA consultants are reviewed and assessed by a committee of Peer Reviewers who make recommendations for award or denial of PQAS status

• Approved PQAS instructors and TA consultants must maintain established qualifications, including education attainments, professional development experience and knowledge of adult learning principles.

B.  Evaluation Processes

Evaluation is carefully collecting information about something in order to make necessary decisions about it.  A key part of education or professional development event is evaluation.  An evaluation of a professional development instruction can serve multiple purposes, including:

• Determine the appropriateness and effectiveness of the instruction.

• Determines the best practices available in the field.

• Helps organizations calculate return on investment.

• Use to analyze pre-instruction baseline and expected performance.

• Identify practitioner reaction to the professional development event.

• Determine impact of the instruction.

Built into Pennsylvania’s quality assurance system is a set of standards that individuals who provide professional development opportunities should meet as well as a set of standards, linked to Pennsylvania Core Body of Knowledge and the principles of adult learning that the professional event must meet.  Each professional development event is evaluated both by the instructor and participants.  These evaluations are compiled and analyzed in order to provide on-going benchmarks for outcome assessment in order to best meet the professional development needs of early childhood and school-age practitioners in the State.

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