PD in the SIP

I'm finding myself in the very same situation as Jeff B describes in his latest post. Professional development is addressed as a means to an end in the SIP of one of my elementary schools. They have created four goals for themselves this year; three of them academic. In seeking to raise some sluggish subgroups, they have identified pages (literally) of BD activities such as entire-faculty workshops, small-group inservice trainings, and IT support.
Boys, as a subgroup, make an interesting study. Their scores tend to droop in fourth and fifth grade, and the principal has been looking to do something about it. There's a book study club which should foster some insight. One way is to do more with the non fiction genre. I have seen good work on multi-curricular topics like penguins and bats. Most reading anthologies go heavy on fiction and relationship building, and tend to neglect non fiction and biography.
Another subgroup, predicatably, is low income. Do we all have some experience with Ruby Paine's research (is the spelling right)?
So back to the BD grading rubric. Querry: ELLC Standard Six: Does the educational leader show sensitivity to the larger social, political, and cultural aspect of the community? I believe he does.
Querry: ELLC Standard Three: Does the educational leader promote a safe, efficient, and effective school? Again, I think he does. He has empowered several teachers to take on significant leadership roles. RtI and the school improvement plan is a big deal here. One of the Title I reading teachers is all about collecting, learning from, and diseminating reading data. She was really excited when she learned I was reading the SIP and has been checking back with me this week.