A diverse school district hugging the eastern border of Washington, D.C., Prince George's County, has introduced rigorous hiring methods and other practices to boost the quality of leadership in its 198 schools. In so doing, the district has also earned a spot among the pioneers in efforts nationally to ensure that public schools are led by the…

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…

Without adequate time and resources, it is impossible for school districts and schools to support professional learning that leads to effective teaching practices, supportive leadership, and improved student results. That's why one of the seven new standards in Learning Forward's Standards for Professional Learning focuses specifically on…

A clear vision is the essential foundation for making decisions about precious resources for implementing professional learning: (1) people; (2) time; and (3) money. The Auburn School District in Washington state learned firsthand how a clear vision drives resource allocation to support strategic actions and how effective partnerships can be the…

During the 2010-2011 school year, McWhirter Elementary Professional Development Laboratory School in Webster, Texas, faced a significant reduction in funds available for professional learning. In this article, the author describes how videoconferencing sustained the school's professional learning initiatives on a shrinking budget. By rethinking…

Teachers' social capital is defined as "the knowledge and resources for teaching practice accessible through a social network." The first step to analyzing teachers' social capital is to understand the structure of their social network. Some networks are highly interconnected, offering teachers numerous opportunities to share ideas and receive…

Some schools make significant contributions to a child's growth and development with little to show on a standardized test, while other schools do little, with acceptable results on those same tests. This article describes how Lincoln Elementary School in Madison, Wisconsin, made creative use of resources to promote student achievement and meet…

The Learning School Alliance is a network of schools collaborating about professional practice. The network embodies Learning Forward's purpose to advance effective job-embedded professional learning that leads to student outcomes. A key component of Learning Forward's Standards for Professional Learning is a focus on collaborative learning,…

A teacher can be the most important resource in a school. When the teacher's attitude derives from asset-based thinking, positive impact can occur for both teacher and student. Asset-based thinking is defined as "a way of viewing reality." Those who embrace this model approach things from a positive as opposed to a negative perspective.…

Schools and districts are beneficiaries of multiple opportunities to extend and enhance their core work of educating students through partnerships in two ways. These opportunities emerge either from invitations that come from outside the school and district, such as those from corporations, universities, or regional education agencies, or they are…

As anyone in a partnership--a marriage, a business, a professional relationship--will attest, it takes hard work and energy, time and persistence, and reciprocal commitment to make a partnership successful. Writing from the perspective of an external partner, the authors explore lessons learned from eight years of working with public school…

Sometimes partners find one another when they're not looking. In South Carolina, education leaders at Georgetown County School District were seeking only information when they attended a workshop sponsored by the South Carolina Department of Education. The two-day learning experience, provided by SEDL, a nonprofit organization based in Austin,…

An Illinois district brings a local university into the district to craft advanced learning embedded in the needs of specific schools. Community High School District 155 in Crystal Lake, Ill., and Northern Illinois University (NIU) College of Education engaged in a partnership that has provided significant benefits, posed limited challenges, and…

In a professional learning community, adults learn through focused conversations on teaching practices and teacher learning to support student learning. Teachers in a professional learning community push each other's thinking and learning about teaching through questioning. While there are multiple opportunities for this critical thinking to…

Linda MacDonell is the assistant superintendent of the Instructional Services Division of the Orange County (California) Department of Education and over the years, Delores Lindsey served as MacDonell's leadership coach. In this article, they talk about their experiences as external/internal partners building internal capacity for culturally…