Over the last five years schools and districts have been under enormous pressure to improve student achievement scores on state accountability assessments. Educators agree that professional development plays a key role in providing the knowledge and skills needed to increase teacher effectiveness in the classroom. There is no reliable measure for determining the impact of professional development on student achievement and high stakes testing has left little space for individual teachers to reflect on the type of learning that is needed to address the changing needs of students. The Individual Professional Development Plan (IPDP) is an innovative educator tool that employs an architectural framework to align professional development for teachers with the learning needs of students. This study examines the effects of the IPDP on teachers' perceptions of teaching self-efficacy and empowerment.

Constructivist theories support the implementation of task-oriented, job-embedded learning experiences that allow educators to construct knowledge while interacting directly with the context of their learning environment. Guided by data and professional teaching standards, participants collaborated in professional learning communities to develop and cultivate an IPDP, which consisted of a professional learning goal, objectives, learning activities, timelines and resources needed to successfully implement the plan. Findings in this study reveal that teachers feel more efficacious in the classroom when empowered to make critical decisions about the content and direction of their own professional learning.