The purpose of professional learning is for educators to develop the knowledge, skills, practices, and dispositions they need to help students perform at higher levels. It is not a simple matter to connect the dots between high quality professional learning and student outcomes. However, the theory of action that drives the standards, and indeed much of Learning Forward's work, is a continuous model of improvement: Standards-based professional learning leads to greater overall educator expertise, which causes changes in educator practice that results in better student outcomes (see "Relationship between professional learning and student results" on p. 12). There is much embedded in each of those four circles, and the aim of this issue of "Journal of Staff Development" is to encourage readers to explore the ideas behind the standards in depth through a range of lenses, and then to consider next actions.