Effectively supporting adult development on the front lines of schools is no easy task. In this article, the authors report on talks with education leaders about the most pressing challenges they face in supporting adult development in their schools and organizations. The leaders participated in a graduate course about supporting adult development…

The image of success not being a straight, upward arrow but a big, messy scribbled blob defines the career trajectory of the author perfectly. Her work has moved forward, pushed upward, and stretched further, but it has not been a smooth and easy path. In this article, an education consultant reflects on her career highs and lows as she shifts…

Delores and Randall Lindsey approach the Outcomes standard through the lens of their cultural proficiency work to highlight the equity focus embedded in the standard. This excerpt from their essay in "Reach the Highest Standard in Professional Learning: Outcomes" dives into their cultural proficiency tools and framework and their…

As they write about the Learning Communities standard in "Reach the Highest Standard in Professional Learning: Learning Communities," authors Ann Lieberman and Lynne Miller consider why communities have gained widespread attention and support and summarize the established research base about them. They also describe three contexts in…

Content teachers responsible for the instruction of English learner students will perceive myriad challenges when it comes to English learner students in the mainstream. School leaders can play a pivotal role in supporting and mitigating some of these challenges by recognizing what some of the pitfalls and issues might be for content teachers…

The challenges of implementing the Common Core State Standards and Science Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) provide momentum for facilitating teacher learning far beyond the capacity of current formal and informal professional development in most school districts. The implementation of the curricula that substantially increase the learning…

In this study of 16 teachers in two primary schools in the Netherlands, researchers built on findings from previous studies to demonstrate that a thoughtfully designed professional development program can be "effective and sustainable, if certain conditions are met" (p. 772) in changing teachers' knowledge, beliefs, perceived problems,…

More and more, the educators this author works with recognize that schools will need to become different, not just better, to help students meet the challenges of the future. These educators are trying to respond to an imperative to innovate as well as improve. The depth of change required to move from creating improvement to fostering innovation…

This article is drawn from a longer study Lois Brown Easton conducted for Learning Forward as the organization seeks to understand and influence the global professional learning landscape. A look at the data shows that, despite everything known about the need for high-quality professional learning, a significant number of teachers around the world…

Learning communities are best defined as "ongoing groups who meet regularly for the purposes of increasing their own learning and that of their students." Although learning communities vary in form and context, they share some fundamental core beliefs and values. Based on the idea that educators can learn from each other, learning communities…

When the author became principal of Acton Elementary School in Acton, Maine, in 2003, he spent the summer interviewing staff members. Staff in this small, rural elementary school overwhelmingly expressed a desire for opportunities to learn collaboratively. The teachers described a school culture where staff did not work together but instead worked…

Hallie Preskill and Rosalie Torres (1999) describe mental models as a set of personal opinions, perceptions, and views of the world. Developed over time, such values, beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge guide people in their everyday lives and are thought of as "truths." Mental models are powerful because they frame and influence the way educators…