According to a recent research study, teachers attributed students' performance to their instruction only 15% of the time. Far more frequently, they connected results to student characteristics, particularly students' behavior, effort, or background. It's been long known that individual student characteristics, family background, and neighborhood…

Educators often shy away from evaluating professional learning experiences because they believe the process requires knowledge and skills they don't possess. As a result, they either neglect evaluation procedures completely or leave them to "experts" who come in at the end and gather data to determine if anything made a difference. But…