New Visions for Public Schools is in the third year of supporting a network of 18 New York City public schools to address uneven student success in Algebra 1. One of the ways New Visions is helping schools achieve greater equity in algebra is by supporting them to use a shared curriculum. But how is it known if the shared curriculum is making a…

Professional learning focused on racial equity in schools should transform educators' beliefs and interrupt inequitable outcomes for students. To ensure that it does, professional learning leaders must not only excel at typical facilitation skills -- such as being aware of group dynamics, supporting inquiry, and creating relationships -- but…

To help coaches grow into their roles, Learning Forward's Coaches Academy provides personalized support to districts and states. Offered both in person and virtually, the Coaches Academy builds coaches' knowledge and capacity through facilitated sessions with an expert coach, collaborative learning communities, tools and strategies tailored to the…

Cultivating inclusive classrooms, where all students are heard, affirmed, and validated, is an equity issue. As an instructional coach and a supervisor of coaches, the author has a moral obligation to work against the system that was designed to and continues to oppress some students and benefit others. This work often brings up difficult…

Coaches play integral roles in many schools' learning cultures, but they often find their entry into coaching life disorienting and difficult. Educators typically take on the mantle of coach because they were successful as teachers, and they may have limited experiences working with adult learners. For new coaches, having access to the support and…

To help grow the capacity of their teachers to maximize the growth of their students, Keller (Texas) Independent School District used video to provide personalized professional learning to teachers across the career continuum, from new teachers to veteran teachers looking to improve their practice. Their decision to use video-based professional…

The authors work with practicing teachers learning to become coaches in graduate programs and through professional learning initiatives in multiple school districts. They are also engaged in an ongoing research study of new coach development. Over the last five years, they have observed some common patterns in coaches' learning (Ortmann et. al,…

The pursuit of racial equity in public education has a long history in the United States. Inequities persist across all content areas, but are particularly entrenched in STEM subjects. The Detroit Public Schools Community District's Office of Science, where the authors serve as executive director and training and support coordinator, is striving…

One of the challenges leaders face is how to help teachers examine their classroom practice. The use of video technology as a tool for teacher self-reflection, peer collaboration, and coaching has been gaining in popularity for just this purpose. In this article, the authors share how teachers benefit from using a Lesson Analysis Protocol to…

Podcasts are one of the fastest-growing media platforms for sharing content to meet both personal and professional interests. myPD Unplugged is a podcast about professional learning that is leveraging this popular platform to create "anywhere, anytime" professional learning for educators. The Office of Curriculum, Instruction, and…

To put it simply, public reflective practice is a check-in: How are we doing, what are we learning from practice, what changes are making a difference, and so on. Teachers have these kinds of conversations privately but rarely have a chance to think out loud with others about what they are coming to understand about teaching and learning. That is…

This article presents a reflection tool--created by The New Teacher Project (TNTP) and Learning Forward--for shifting the cognitive load to students from teachers so that students are actively engaged, use critical thinking, and demonstrate understanding. Coaches, teacher leaders, and other professional learning leaders can use this tool in…

Research supports the contention that professional learning communities (PLCs) are a "path to change in the classroom" (DuFour, 1997). Teachers treading this path, however, can encounter obstacles or plateau as a result of five common challenges: incoherence, insularity, unequal participation, congeniality, and privacy. Fortunately,…

Stress is part of the job of a school leader. How can principals and other leaders manage the stress so they can be resilient and effective? This article shares advice on this topic from five experts. Tips include: (1) Balance urgency with purposeful action (Ayesha Farag, Principal of Williams Elementary School in Newton, Massachusetts); (2) Keep…

Seeing a need to develop the attitudes, knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to think deeply about and work effectively with diverse student populations. These authors developed a coaching framework with an explicit focus on equity to provide a high-powered lens to zoom in on a practice and deconstruct it for the purpose of disrupting and…