Why is formative assessment -- a proven powerful instructional practice -- so elusive in classrooms? As a regional professional learning provider for several years, Amy Burton rarely observed the use of formative assessment, even though, when asked, teachers could define it -- a quick check, during instruction, of what all students understand so…

Curriculum-based professional learning is not just having teachers read curriculum materials, but rather includes carefully crafted experiences to support their sensemaking, deep understanding of the curriculum and its pedagogy, and ability to transfer that knowledge into practice. This instructional model requires that teachers be responsive to…

Learning Forward's Standards for Professional Learning define and describe professional learning that leads to improved educator practices, leadership, and student outcomes. Standards draw on the latest evidence and research about what works in professional learning to help educators implement every phase of the professional learning process. They…

When a new community forms, whether it is an elementary school class or a teacher inquiry group, co-constructing norms or community expectations is often one of the members' first tasks. The authors advocate that norms should be given to (rather than created by) a newly formed community to elevate the different needs, goals, and perspectives of…

Equipping educators to hear students' voices, and then translating that information into concrete behavioral and instructional changes, is what the team at Partners in School Innovation has undertaken in San Jose, California, for the last several years. Their efforts have not only suggested promising practices, but also highlighted important…

A dilemma for teachers at all levels is planning for transfer of learning, or students' long-term retention. Transfer of learning takes time, a precious commodity for teachers bound by a tight schedule. Unfortunately, transfer often gets lost in the day-to-day realities of schools, including testing requirements. One way for the teacher to make…

Amid soaring rates of teacher burnout and attrition, those at City Year are finding a trend that may seem surprising: Participants in their Network for School Improvement, when asked how likely they would be to recommend the network to other colleagues, have given an average rating of 9 out of 10. The authors have found that six key principles can…

"School is not a rehearsal for life. School is life," says Mirko Chardin, founding principal of Putnam Avenue Upper School, a public middle school serving a diverse group of 6th-8th graders in Cambridge, Massachusetts. When the school was founded in 2012 as part of a districtwide middle school reorganization, its leaders and staff were…

This article explains how principals and leadership teams have used a pivotal segments approach to overcome problems of time limitations and other barriers and create more meaningful teaching and learning opportunities. To leverage the power of pivotal segments, teams begin by establishing clear goals for student learning and the sequence or…

Project-based learning is popular with many parents, students, and teachers because of its focus on problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, and real-world application (Gallup, 2019). It encourages teachers to act as facilitators while students actively engage in teacherand student-posed learning challenges, working alone and in groups on…

More than 60% of U.S. school children are being educated in states in which Next Generation Science Standards or other framework-derived standards have been adopted. This vision demands a central role for students to engage in science and engineering practices to build and use science ideas, rather than solely learning about the science others…

In this article, the author describes collaborative work with four teachers through the Lansing School District's participation in a multiyear project to implement and study the effects of the My Teaching Partner-Secondary 1:1 Video Coaching model. The model is a collaborative, individualized coaching program that focuses on effective…

In 2015, Liberty, (Missouri) Public Schools was updating resources for several content areas. Content consultant Diana Laufenberg, executive director of Inquiry Schools, had been working with secondary teachers to study options for the best and most current instructional practices in social studies. As teachers considered using online resources…

This article describes how participants in the California Teacher Inquiry Network learn the art of making their invisible thinking processes visible, helping them see more clearly that they have internal resources to help students master similar kinds of thinking processes.

This article discusses factors to consider as we evaluate the professional learning occurring in our schools. The article describes how a committee of six teachers and one administrator at Hershey Middle School in Pennsylvania's Derry Township School District adapted an activity for use in a two-hour professional learning session called "The…