The authority for these standards is RCW 28A.405.150 which authorizes the superintendent of public instruction to develop minimum procedural standards for evaluation of certificated classroom teachers and certified support personnel conducted pursuant to RCW 28A.405.100.

Professional development programs are a form of personnel evaluation in which the emphasis is on growth and improvement rather than on decisions related to probation, nonrenewal, and discharge.

The purpose of this chapter is to establish procedures to be adopted by districts for the professional development of certificated classroom teachers and certificated support personnel. Professional development procedures shall be used:

(1) To encourage employee self-assessment and goal setting;

(2) To provide opportunities for and encourage sharing among teaching and support staff of personal professional experience and expertise;

(3) To aid employees in planning personal professional growth plans;

(4) To provide opportunities for parents, students, and other interested community members to offer meaningful input to their schools through their observations of instructional effectiveness;

(5) To link identified professional needs with appropriate in-service, staff development, and other appropriate professional growth and instructional improvement opportunities.

Local school districts shall adopt a professional growth program for certificated classroom teachers and certificated support personnel as specified in Title 392 WAC unless a collective bargaining agreement provides otherwise.

Each district shall establish a professional growth committee which shall develop the district's professional growth program in accordance with the procedures in this chapter. The professional growth committee shall include, at a minimum, representatives of the following groups:

(1) Certificated classroom teachers. A minimum of one teacher from the K-8 level and one teacher from the high school level if the local school district provides education services to students K-12.

(2) Certificated support personnel. A minimum of one itinerant staff person, if the school district employs itinerant personnel, and a minimum of one other representative of counseling, assessment, library and/or other certificated support staff, if the school district employs nonitinerant certificated support staff.

(3) Central office administrators. A minimum of one representative.

(4) Building level administrators. A minimum of one administrator from the K-8 level and one administrator from the high school level if the local school district provides education services to students K-12.

(5) Additional persons, if the local school district so desires.

(6) Provided, That the local school district committee established under the In-Service Training Act, RCW 28A.415.040, may be used by the school district as the professional growth committee.

One or more of the following sources of information shall be used by certificated classroom teachers and certificated support personnel in developing professional growth plans: (1) Peer review and evaluation, (2) input by parents, (3) input by students, (4) personal and/or professional goals, (5) school district goals, (6) building goals, (7) self-assessment, (8) personal academic records, and (9) school district evaluations.

Materials/records/portfolios expressly developed as a result of the individual's participation in the professional growth program shall be the property of the certified staff member participating in the program and shall not be retained in the employee's personnel file or used by the district in its formal evaluation criteria.

Districts shall:

(1) Establish a professional growth committee, pursuant to Title 392 WAC during, if not before, the 1990-91 school year.

(2) Adopt a professional growth program in the school district by the 1992-93 school year.