The purpose of this study was to examine professional development in three Nebraska public schools. For decades, the issue of professional development has been dissected, often resulting in unhealthy opposition between faculty and administration. Numerous studies have been conducted on teacher education, often with inconclusive or conflicting results. A review of literature illustrates how professional development has evolved through time, describing how governance, the role of the administration, strategic planning, and budget all affect the success of teacher education. This research study scrutinized four major themes that emerged as having direct influence on professional development for participating teachers: (1) shared responsibilities, (2) the roles of administrators and teachers, (3) forethought and preparation, and (4) expenditures. Methods and procedures of the dissertation study are detailed. Designed to be retrospective in nature, this investigation sought greater understanding of how teachers and administrators perceived the effectiveness of professional development in their schools. Because of the brevity of the study, proposal of extreme changes to professional development is not intended. Rather, the study is intended to corroborate similar studies’ findings or perhaps reveal new insights in the field. Findings of the study are scrutinized and interpretation of those findings show correlations to the review of literature and the aforementioned emerging themes. Conclusions include a comparison/contrast of teacher and administrator perspectives as well as a discussion on implications of the study and recommendations for future research.

Keywords. professional development, staff development, teacher education, learning communities, collaboration, governance, roles of the administrator