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…

Political discord, social tensions, and global conflicts compel teachers to guide students in exploring diverse perspectives and engaging in constructive, respectful dialogues. Furthermore, the rapid evolution of technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), necessitates teachers and school leaders to consider entirely new paradigms in…

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…

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…

Midcareer teachers want something new from professional learning. Nearly all of the midcareer teachers the author interviewed described a need for content that is fresh or invites a meaningful extension of their existing skills and understandings. Midcareer teachers have different professional learning needs than novice teachers. To serve their…

Curriculum-based professional learning is situated within the broader professional learning ecosystem. It focuses on how to teach a specific subject for specific grades, using the specific materials that teachers will use with their students. Given the potential of curriculum-based professional learning to support teachers and strengthen…

Fishbowl coaching is where a coach and a teacher engage in a coaching session while other coaches observe the live interaction. While the conversation is happening, the other coaches take notes and prepare feedback to share after the conversation. Coaches learn from each other about how to structure and lead meaningful conversations that they can…

There are many valuable sources of evaluation data, including -- but not limited to -- professional learning participants. In the authors' work on leadership development and organizational learning for Tulsa Public Schools in Oklahoma, they regularly ask educators to share feedback and perceptions of usefulness of their professional learning. The…

When educators engage in professional learning that is standards-based and led by an administrator who engaged in a standards-aligned preparation program and works in a state that has adopted standards for school leadership, there is greater potential for everyone in the system to develop the beliefs, values, knowledge, and skills to improve their…

How does one overcome the challenges to finding time for meaningful professional learning? The authors asked seven experts in the field, and these practitioners offer powerful strategies for making better use of educator time. An example from Illinois centers student data in school systems as an essential component of a school's overall commitment…

Standards for Professional Learning are forward-looking by nature because they drive continuous improvement in educator practice. But taking a brief look at the history of the standards is important for understanding their impact on the field and their role in today's professional learning. As the field has shifted philosophy from staff…