In many schools, teams come together primarily to plan events, build common assessments, or determine curriculum or grade-level planning. But teams often struggle to make teamwork an inquiry-driven process that focuses on problems of practice and student learning. The essential focus of teams should be on building collective responsibility…

Curriculum-based professional learning is situated within the broader professional learning ecosystem. It focuses on how to teach a specific subject for specific grades, using the specific materials that teachers will use with their students. Given the potential of curriculum-based professional learning to support teachers and strengthen…

In March 2020, emergency school closings as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic initiated a sudden widespread use of virtual learning and brought new challenges that affected teaching and learning across multiple contexts. The complex change caused school district leaders to make plans to reinvent and reimagine schools and created a need for teacher…

In Penn State's work with aspiring teacher leaders over the last decade, two core strategies have emerged that hold significant promise for fostering teacher leadership: (1) provide teachers with the skills they need to create their own jobs; and (2) provide training and extended (e.g. post-graduate) support in developing ongoing professional…

With educators facing conditions never seen before, Student Achievement Partners wanted to better understand what was happening on the ground -- the triumphs, needs, opportunities, and concerns of teachers trying to navigate instruction during the pandemic. A sample of more than 400 survey responses received in March and April 2020, which include…

Coaching is a popular and promising form of professional learning, with research evidence of its effectiveness for teachers and students. Surprisingly little is known, however, about the current landscape of coaching. To close this knowledge gap, Learning Forward recently partnered with Digital Promise to survey more than 1,000 U.S. educators…

A recent qualitative study by a team of researchers looked into how grade-level teams of teachers are thinking about causes and strategies based on looking at student performance data. What is interesting in these findings is how infrequently teachers attribute student results to instruction -- just 15% of the time. Teachers in this study were…

While a good amount is known in education research about approaches to individualized learning (e.g. differentiated instruction, personalized learning plans), little is known about the scope and scale of efforts to individualize learning in the Bush Foundation's region of focus. To support its learning and future investments, the Bush Foundation…

A recent study by Debra McKeown and colleagues is described by author Eliabeth Foster as important not only because it highlights professional learning about a model of writing instruction of interest to many educators, but also because it examines teachers' reflections about their experiences in professional learning. Building on a larger…

These three authors have led and studied coaching across diverse settings and with educators at multiple levels, from classroom teachers to district and state leaders, and have observed that the need for a more strategic approach is a common theme. They draw on implementation science research to describe how to improve coaching across educational…

Since 2013, a majority of states have been working to implement new standards for K-12 science education that are based on the National Research Council's framework for science education and the Next Generation Science Standards. The new science standards emphasize deeper understanding of content in relation to practices and a three-dimensional…

For emergent bilingual students to thrive, schools need a culture of valuing bilingualism, supported by strong and committed leaders. From 2015 to 2017, the authors convened a professional learning community of 14 emergent bilingual leaders from around the U.S. They defined emergent bilingual leaders as leaders at all levels who support…