Educator implementation of a professional development program

In order to drive educational reform and improve §student outcomes, attention must be paid to§maximizing the benefits of §teacher staff development. The §present study applied the Levels of Use framework to §examine teachers instructional practices following §a program designed to help educators more effectively§instruct students with learning §difficulties. Teacher implementation was found to §be positively associated with increased §participation in the program, increased number of §colleagues engaged in that same program, and §perceived administrator support for the program. §Further, implementation was not restricted by§teachers'' prior §professional backgrounds related to working with §students with learning difficulties. §Results of this study will be of relevance to§researchers concerned with forces that §influence teachers'' ongoing use of high quality§professional §development experiences, program developers seeking §to translate their programs into educators real §life settings, and administrators concerned with the §most effective ways to support the implementation of §staff development programs in which they have invested.