International Journal of New Technology and Research (IJNTR) ISSN:2454-4116, Volume-1, Issue-7, November 2015 Pages 58-61 58 www.ijntr.org Abstract— Using qualitative survey response data from 75 third grade bilingual teachers in a randomized control trial (RCT), we examined teachers’ perceptions towards the project’s virtual professional development (VPD) component. We were interested in the teachers’ perceptions as it relates to the potential to take PD to a broader audience across geographic regions (scalability). Through the progression from the original RCT in one school district with face-face PD to a validation RCT in seven school districts across three geographic regions with VPD, it was found that teachers were overwhelmingly positive toward such type of training, and VPD is a gateway to increasing the scalability of strategies presented in the online setting. Index Terms— Bilingual education, Elementary school, Randomized control trial, Virtual professional development. I. INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW Quality of instruction has been determined to be one of the most important aspects for improving achievement among English language learners (ELLs) [1]-[4], and ongoing professional development (PD) can improve the quality of the instruction [5]. As [6] suggested, ―Professional development is critical to ensuring that teachers keep up with changes in statewide student performance standards, become familiar with new methods of teaching in the content areas, learn how to make the most effective instructional use of new technologies for teaching and learning, and adapt their teaching to shifting school environments and an increasingly diverse student population (p. 575).‖ According to [7], in the 1990s, the World Wide Web opened the door for online education to develop by making it fairly accessible to society, allowing for a faster form of human communication, and encouraging the creation of new pedagogical models. In the last ten years, there seems to be a push to integrate more online technology components into PD for classroom teachers. As noted by many scholars, the flexibility of these types of new online instructional technologies allows teachers to have year-round access to important resources and new developments in teaching practices [8]. Reference [9] indicated that online professional Fuhui Tong, Department of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4225, United States, Beverly J. Irby, Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource Development, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4226, United States, Rafael Lara-Alecio, Department of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX development, or virtual professional development (VPD), may be delivered in several says: (a) synchronous with facilitator, (b) asynchronous with facilitator, and (c) asynchronous without facilitator. Under each of these delivery modes participants may be involved as a group or as individuals or a combination. Additionally, these modes may be formal or informal learning situations. Thus there may be multiple combinations. Reference [10] concluded that online discussions provided teachers with the opportunity to clarify their thinking about complex educational issues and make more informed decisions about their professional practice. Reference [11]-[12] demonstrated the important role of new technology that will continue to play in the education of future teachers and special populations such as English language learners (ELLs). For over a decade, researchers have recommended that online PD be examined for effectiveness in terms of teachers’ knowledge, skills, attitudes, beliefs, and classroom practices [13]-[14]. In a review of studies prior to 2009 [15], only seven studies of 40 were focused on interventions to improve teacher practice and/or student learning. Few randomized control trial studies since 2010 include VPD. Reference [14] affirmed that general online teacher professional development is an area in need of high levels of quantitative and empirical-related academic research. They found that previous studies lacked an appropriate line of questioning, rigor of methodology, and conclusive findings to support theses; thus, their review served as powerful evidence that empirical research on this topic is weak and underfunded to a striking degree. Reference [16] furthered the concept of online professional development by conducting a review, and found a void in the literature particularly in relation to bilingual and ESL classroom teachers. In fact, After an overview of recent literature housed in major search engines (e.g., Google, Academic Search Complete, JSTOR, EBSCO, ProQuest)—limiting the review to online or VPD and elementary teachers of ELLs (bilingual or English as second language–ESL) in the United States without limiting the years of publication—no empirical studies were found. There have been no randomized control trial studies examining academic year-long uses of VPD on focused curriculum-based training for elementary teachers of ELLs. No studies using VPD have targeted solely bilingual classrooms for ELLs, and no studies were found that determined if the condition of virtual observations and feedback and VPD impact elementary teachers of ELLs and ELLs’ achievement in a variety of schools. No qualitative studies on VPD and bilingual/ESL teachers were found to Teachers’ Perception of Virtual Professional Development in a Randomized Control Trial Fuhui Tong, Beverly J. Irby, Rafael Lara-Alecio