The before and after of a professional learning event is as important as the event itself, says Fred Ende, author of "Professional Development That Sticks" (ASCD Arias, 2016). Here, he introduces the TAR Method (Think, Act, Review) to help give these phases their due.

The conventional school discipline system is invisible to most students and teachers until it gets activated (typically by a discipline referral), at which time, students and school staff alike know what to expect: Some kind of investigative process, which usually consists of questioning the involved parties and reviewing available video footage…

Adaptive leadership focuses on helping leaders act in a way that encourages others to adapt and embrace change. Adaptive leaders engage in activities that "mobilize," "motivate," "organize," "orient," and "focus the attention of others." Instead of single-handedly trying to solve all problems and…

The world of research has much knowledge to benefit practitioners, but it can be hard for practitioners to know where and how to sift through the research base to find the most relevant information for their needs. By translating problems of practice into the narrower types of questions that research can answer, educators can locate relevant…

College- and career-readiness skills can easily get lost if you don't have a clear school-wide plan for teaching them. While curriculum in schools is primarily meant to ready students for college and career skills, ensuring those skills actually transfer is another story. Andrew Miller lays out a system for teaching and assessing key…

According to Jim Knight, learning something new--such as a new instructional approach or other innovation--and applying it in practice is complex and involves adaptations that take time. Knight describes the five stages he believes people go through in learning and practicing any innovation, from "non-use," gradually up to the stage of…

"There are no shortcuts for true equity," says authors and consultants Shane Safir and Jamila Dugan. Equity work is hard, on-going work--and it means not falling into ineffective traps and tropes. Find out what these traps are and how to avoid them.

When San Francisco implemented a new policy to improve graduation rates and college enrollment, district officials realized their work was only beginning. San Francisco Unified School District revamped its college-ready graduation policy in 2009, hoping to increase the likelihood that students would graduate with the necessary courses to go to a…

For professional learning to "stick," teachers need to connect what they learn to their practice--and particularly to their work with their current students. The authors describe a PD program they've developed for math teachers with emergent multilingual students (English language learners) in their classes. Teachers choose "focus…