Adapted from the brief "Meet the Promise of Content Standards: Investing in Professional Learning," this article draws on the work of Learning Forward's initiative, Transforming Professional Learning to Prepare College- and Career-Ready Students: Implementing the Common Core. This multidimensional initiative is focused on developing…

For educators to be successful in ensuring that students are college-and career-ready, they must have high-quality professional learning. This article describes how the foundation and guidance for evaluating the impact of professional learning can be enhanced with the "Standards for Professional Learning Tool" (Learning Forward, 2011).…

This school year, countless teachers are participating in new evaluation systems. Individual teachers working on their own examining evaluation feedback will have valuable information to inform individual improvement. However, teacher evaluations have the potential to achieve more, and to do it more quickly, when they are part of a comprehensive…

This article is an excerpt from "A Playbook for Professional Learning: Putting the Standards Into Action" (Learning Forward, 2012). Written by Learning Forward Executive Director Stephanie Hirsh and Scholar Laureate Shirley Hord, "A Playbook for Professional Learning" provides those who work in professional learning with readily accessible…

What percentage of their budgets should schools and districts invest in professional learning? To answer that question, schools and districts must first know how much they are spending on professional learning and be able to connect that spending to student achievement. Knowing what is invested in professional learning requires understanding the…

Student success depends on effective teaching--not just occasionally, but every day in every classroom and school. Effective teaching impacts students' academic, physical, social-emotional, and behavioral well-being. Generating a vision, developing an instructional framework, and delineating student learning outcomes by themselves are insufficient…

Vicki Phillips from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation talks with Learning Forward about the foundation's investment in effective teaching and the role of professional learning. Phillips said great teachers are the most important school-based ingredient for student success. So they are committed to ensuring teachers have the supports and tools…

Learning Forward introduces new Standards for Professional Learning. This is the third iteration of standards outlining the characteristics of professional learning that lead to effective teaching practices, supportive leadership, and improved student results. The standards are not a prescription for how education leaders and public officials…

A school that ensures that all students--regardless of race, creed, color, socioeconomic status, gender, or disabilities--have access to and receive the highest-quality education has achieved a key measure of social justice. Since the most significant factor in whether students learn well is quality teaching, and teaching is enhanced through…

More than 10 years ago, the author wrote her first version of "The Power of One" for the "Journal of Staff Development." She described her personal journey of discovering how one person could make a huge difference in the face of what appeared as insurmountable challenges. She described ways in which she had made such a difference and told,…

This article discusses the challenge of finding time for learning teams to meet. The author firmly believes that teachers have the capacity to develop solutions that best meet their needs and the needs of their students. She believes that if the teachers know that their learning and teamwork is in the best interests of their students, they will be…

Good teaching occurs when educators on teams are involved in a cycle in which they analyze data, determine student and adult learning goals based on that analysis, design joint lessons that use evidence-based strategies, have access to coaches for support in improving their classroom instruction, and then assess how their learning and teamwork…

Professional learning is necessary for a school or district to achieve its goals. It's logical, then, that professional development plans should not exist separately from school improvement plans. To be comprehensive, professional development plans must be integrated with improvement plans to produce a systematic effort that is results-driven,…

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…

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…