To address the question of how to develop the capacity for every instructional coach to provide job-embedded professional learning for every teacher and student, the Utah State Board of Education's quality instruction team designed and built a statewide 22 networked professional learning system that includes instructional coaches, local education…

How would instruction and student learning improve if educators made the time to really understand and practice a new curriculum before implementing it in classrooms with students? In Orange County, California, educators are finding out by testing an approach of preimplementation professional learning for a full year before applying a new…

Evaluation data helps inform decision-makers about the time, human capital, and funding required for professional learning to be effective. Evaluation data also guides program improvement and sets leaders' expectations for ongoing monitoring and accountability. The complexities of the educational systems in which professional learning happens mean…

Most educators believe that social and emotional learning (SEL) skills are a fundamental part of good teaching and learning. Long before the pandemic, surveys showed that teachers believed these skills were essential for students to learn at school, and research confirmed that they are linked with measures of academic success. Educators need…

Each year, educators engage in hours of professional learning to enhance their practice. Those hours are limited, both by contract and the imperative of keeping teachers in classrooms as much as possible. It is essential that this professional learning time is well-spent and pays dividends toward the goal of all public education: ensuring that…

Feedback is essential for learning and a key component of career-long growth. Tailoring feedback formats is important to meet educators' unique needs and stages of development. Drawing on the authors' professional practice, three categories of feedback are defined and illustrated: (1) rapid response formats; (2) moderate engagement formats; and…

Educators and researchers often think of program design and program evaluation as separate endeavors, even intentionally creating a firewall between them. But what if designers and evaluators worked together, combining their insights to strengthen both the program and the study of it? In the work of evaluating a statewide professional learning…

Friday, March 13, 2020, was a professional learning day for many school districts in Connecticut. The timing was fortuitous because it gave educators a chance to make plans for the coming weeks. In the previous few days, they had learned that schools were going to be closed for a couple of weeks due to the rising threat from the pandemic that…

Professional learning usually means growing an educators' knowledge base, abilities, and mindsets for the purpose of benefiting students. But Harford County Public Schools in Maryland has reframed it with a much broader scope. Professional learning is now called organizational development, reflecting the district's aim for everyone in all…

District and central office leaders occupy a unique space in implementing new initiatives. This article presents how a national professional learning network provides a space for district curriculum leaders to learn and grow.

Leadership is often described as lonely work. Today's leaders have demanding, high-stakes responsibilities yet lack the peer connection and high-quality professional learning they need to address those challenges. Leaders' professional learning frequently occurs in isolation from their peers with similar experiences, and it is often confined to a…

Today's school leaders are often stretched thin, juggling increasingly complex challenges with limited resources. This situation is exacerbated by veteran administrators leaving the profession, leaving less experienced principals and assistant principals to lead schools without substantial support. To address the evolving needs of school leaders,…

The professional learning team at Learning Without Tears leads the design, development, facilitation, impact assessment, and progressive improvement of professional learning for thousands of educators, therapists, and other practitioners who use Learning Without Tears integrated solutions to build children's foundational early literacy skills. The…

Many of today's educators learned math in elementary and secondary schools with approaches very different from those outlined in the current standards, and it is difficult to teach for proficiencies educators have not yet developed in themselves. How can teachers find time for this kind of professional learning with all the other responsibilities…

This article describes a partnership that launched a principal professional learning community (PLC) that emphasized shared learning, peer calibration, and reflective practice. The PLC created space for building-level administrators, including principals and assistant principals, to learn with and from one another in role-alike groups. Its purpose…