Analysis of the Impact of School-Based Professional Development: Student Achievement and Lesson Comprehension

This study utilized data from the Korean Educational Longitudinal Study (KELS) 2013 to analyze the relationship between school-based professional development and middle school students’ academic achievement and lesson comprehension in Korean, Math, and English. The findings indicated that almost 90% of schools implemented school-based professional development programs in 2016, which was encouraging given the policy emphasis on promoting school-based professional development. However, all three types of professional development were conducted for less than an average of 10 hours, and no statistically significant relationship was found between the total hours of these programs and students' academic achievement, after controlling for school and student background characteristics. Based on these findings, the study presents policy implications.