Kristen Weatherby is a senior policy analyst at OECD in the education directorate. She runs the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) and is author or co-author of publications and blog posts on TALIS and teachers. She started her career as a classroom teacher in the United States before working in education in the private sector in…

Through its engagement with grantees on initiatives to improve school leadership, The Wallace Foundation came to recognize the important role that state organizations play in advancing effective leadership in districts and schools as well as the importance of coordination among state- and district-level policies. The authors have recently…

Policy influences practice. Policy has the capacity to strengthen practice by demanding accountability for both process and results through clear expectations as well as deliberate sanctions for failure to meet those expectations. Policies can also provide resources to meet expectations. In this article, the authors discuss how several national…

Today's education policy places a high priority on improving teacher quality and teaching effectiveness in U.S. schools. Standards-based professional learning requires teachers to have deep subject knowledge and the most effective pedagogy for teaching the subject. States and school districts are charged with establishing teacher professional…

Just as in the United States, political changes in the United Kingdom and other nations affect education policy. Louise Stoll, professor at the London Centre for Leadership in Learning, Institute of Education, University of London, offers a different view on policy in these excerpts from a conversation with Tracy Crow, Learning Forward's associate…

National education reform happens with or without teacher input, but teachers are increasingly finding ways to enter the policy dialogue. In addition to traditional union representation and direct contact with elected representatives, emerging web 2.0 tools have created a new level of interaction between teachers and policy makers. In this…

Education policy in the province of Alberta is set by Alberta Education, a ministry led by the province's minister of education. There are two key policies or ministerial orders that guide professional learning in Alberta. The Teaching Quality Standard outlines the knowledge, skills, and attributes that teachers are expected to possess. The…

Goals 2000 differs from previous educational legislation because it requires systemic reform and partnerships. The article discusses Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, explains how legislation is developed, and examines Goals 2000's main provisions, content and performance standards, role in professional development, and ties…

In this article, the author wants to bury inservice and all of the outdated practices that go with it such as "delivery of professional development," "training," "staff development programs," "professional development activities," and "ippy dippys." She wants to bury them so deep that no educator will ever again use them to describe the learning…

Studying one's profession, especially when done in community with others, where the learning is richer and deeper, has not been the norm in the education community. Educators typically have been physically isolated from each other because of the structure of school facilities and the schedules that dominate the school day. This physical isolation…

To ensure quality staff development, staff developers must understand the context in which it is delivered, with content, process, and context standards met simultaneously. One administrator's experiences serving on a school board in order to understand how to influence context standards are presented, discussing the creation of staff development…

Michael Kirst argues that staff developers need to develop a clear set of policy positions and specific strategies to influence policymakers, noting that policymakers have traditionally held staff development in low esteem. The paper presents suggestions for what staff developers can do to further their cause. (SM)

A nationwide survey of teachers and administrators showed how central administration can facilitate school-based improvement. Results revealed eight practices that respondents believed helped facilitate the implementation of school-based improvement. Practices related to goals and planning, policy and procedures, staff development, recognition and…

Educators from five states describe how state department initiatives and state legislation have affected staff development, noting how staff developers have influenced and responded to those efforts. (Author/SM)