Discussion-based protocols--an "agreed upon set of discussion or observation rules that guide coach/teacher/student work, discussion, and interactions" (Ippolito & Lieberman, 2012, p. 79)--can help focus and structure productive professional learning discussions. However, while protocols are slowly growing into essential elements of professional learning in schools (Ippolito, 2010, 2013; Peterson, Taylor, Burnham, & Schock, 2009), there remains little research to guide educators in the process of exploring and implementing protocols to advance specific instructional goals. With this in mind, the authors have begun to document how teams of teachers explore and use protocols to support professional learning (Ippolito & Pomerantz, 2013/2014). They investigated how the use of protocols enhanced professional learning among a group of reading specialists when Salem State University partnered with a suburban school district. The goal was to support eight elementary and two middle school reading specialists as they became data coaches, helping classroom teachers examine the implications of literacy data for their instruction. This project took place in a northeast U.S. suburban school district with one high school, one middle school, and five elementary schools. Of the district's roughly 5,000 students, fewer than 20% are of African-American, Latino, or Asian descent, and fewer than 10% report that English is not their first language. To document how the 10 middle and elementary reading specialists implemented protocol-based data meetings, they asked the following questions: (1) Which protocols would teachers adopt, adapt, and find most useful when presented with an array of options? (2) What processes would facilitate the adoption and implementation of the protocols? and (3) In what ways would protocols influence the quality of the conversations at instructional data meetings? This article presents the results of their research.