Professional Development: A Capacity-Building Model for Juvenile Correctional Education Systems.

Abstract

Youth in correctional facilities experience a broad range of educational, psychological, medical, and social needs. Professional development, a systemic process that improves the likelihood of student success by enhancing educator abilities, is a powerful way to positively affect student outcomes in correctional settings. This article offers a professional development framework designed for the juvenile justice system. It includes information on the background and purpose of professional development, and provides the structure, objectives and components necessary to achieve a capacity building professional development model in correctional education settings. In addition, examples of the National Center on Education, Disability, and Juvenile Justice (EDJ J) professional development activities, including piloting of professional development modules in a site are discussed. The article concludes with recommendations for future applications of the proposed framework.