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…

Professional learning communities have long been considered a powerful form of collaborative professional learning, as the Learning Communities standard in Learning Forward's Standards for Professional Learning attests (Learning Forward, 2011). This focus on communities can engage teachers in ongoing professional dialogue and examination of…

Four years ago, Learning Forward established "affecting the policy context" as the first of five strategic priorities that would guide its efforts through 2011. Learning Forward believes that good policy promotes good practice and that laws and policies that promote and support effective professional development are needed to achieve the…

"This is the piece that's been missing." This reaction is common among educators engaged in AIW Iowa, an initiative that engages teachers and administrators in professional learning communities that are improving student achievement, increasing student engagement, and building a schoolwide professional culture focused on improving…

Establishing school-based professional learning appears so simple and straightforward during inspiring presentations at summer workshops, but keeping collaborative work focused on teaching and learning in such a way that it produces consistent results is a highly underestimated task. Investigations and experience from a group of researchers at the…

This article provides Learning Forward's definition of professional development. Learning Forward is seeking legislative amendments to include its definition in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. These amendments will clarify what practices qualify for federal, state, and district…

Every teacher can recall a range of experiences in professional development workshops. Some of these may have provided opportunities in which teachers felt engaged, empowered, and supported as learners, while others felt disconnected from practice. Although these authors recognize that workshops, particularly those with no follow-up support, are…

Describes the development of the National Staff Development Council's Standards for Staff Development, examining the context, process, and content standards and looking at what is new in the recently revised standards and what has remained the same. Three sidebars detail the standards, discuss how different groups can use the standards, and…

Explains that the National Staff Development Council's revised Standards for Staff Development are a call to action to the entire field of staff development, because for too long, the professional development practices of too many school systems and schools have led nowhere. These new standards represent a road map to high quality staff…

Comprehensive school reform (CSR) requires quality professional development to succeed. This paper looks at how schools can make time for professional development while keeping the CSR initiative on track, explaining how to overcome challenges to implementing CSR and noting the need for district support. Steps that districts can take to build…

Because there is a critical problem with the deep structure of traditional staff development (which cannot produce routinely successful teachers), change is needed. In fully effective staff development, the approach focuses on an internship with true master teachers. After presenting examples of powerful staff development, this article discusses…

The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) measures and quantifies the change process in people as their organizations move forward. It examines Stages of Concern, Levels of Use, and Innovation Components. This paper discusses how to best use CBAM and examines key messages: change is a process, not an event; change is a highly personal experience;…

Four actions are necessary when contracting to do staff development: recognize that a presenter is a consultant first, arrange for a group contracting conversation in order to completely understand the school's needs, work from a standard set of design questions, and work from a standard set of logistics questions. (SM)

Principals are key to the success of whole-faculty study groups. Successful study groups require principals to: sponsor and advocate for them; participate in training and planning sessions; plan time for study groups to meet; ensure that study groups communicate with each other; and chart the impact on student learning. Examples from several…

Discusses how to engineer more time into the school day for staff development by restructuring staff, using technology, and team teaching. School boards and parents must be given education, information, and results to experiment with these and other options to create time. A sidebar describes how to create a 15-hour block of time for planning or…