Communities of practice have become important tools for districts striving to improve teacher quality in a way that improves student outcomes, but scaling the benefits of these communities requires a more rigorous, intentional approach. That's why Learning Forward, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, created the Redesign PD…

This article provides a vignette which demonstrates some of the outcomes that occur when teachers collaborate across school district lines. The project began as an idea from Ben Owens, a 2014 Hope Street Group National Teacher Fellow. The basic notion was that good teaching doesn't happen in isolation. As someone who came into teaching after a…

How do districts know if the resources they have allocated to support professional learning in their school district are actually improving the quality of teaching and impacting student performance? In an increasingly challenging financial environment, this is important to know. In this article, a Chicago-area district facing a budget deficit…

For the past 12 years, the author has worked with peer coaches in more than 40 countries, and has seen schools where peer coaches have collaborated with colleagues to improve teaching and learning in classrooms across the school. In other schools, coaches have played a critical role in creating a culture of collaboration that helps build the…

This article describes three types of data that can impact how instructional coaches face the challenges in measuring the impact of their work with teachers on student learning. Descriptions of the three types of data--"shifts in teacher reflective tendencies," "the use of student performance as an indicator of success," and…

This article describes a program instituted by the Northern Valley Schools (New Jersey, USA) Curriculum Consortium's Coaching Academy. This program was born in mid-2012 with the goal of building a cadre of instructional coaches who could provide increased classroom support for teachers to navigate 21st-century educational demands. Planning began…

High school students who are not proficient readers struggle in content classes and often do not graduate from high school. However, they have promise to do so with well-designed and implemented reading curriculum and effective instruction. Without it, they may have difficulty competing in the global workplace (Gordon & Oliva, 2012). One…

New educator evaluation systems demand a focus on effective teaching and learning while promoting the professional growth of all teachers. By identifying and leveraging the contributions of high-performing teachers as instructional leaders, problem solvers, and decision-makers to lead improvement at the classroom level, the system builds capacity…

Policymakers want to see evidence that coaching makes a difference for teachers and students. To this group, making a difference means improving performance on standardized tests. In the current fiscal climate, leaders want to know not only that their investments are based on firm grounds theoretically, but also that instructional coaching works.…

Learning how to give effective feedback can be a difficult task for teacher leaders. This is especially true for what is called "hard feedback"--that is, feedback that challenges the teacher's practice and therefore may cause some level of professional discomfort. Educators at the University of Pittsburgh's Institute for Learning have…

Very little of the professional development literature identifies its costs. Many say good professional development is expensive, but what is meant by expensive, and if so, expensive relative to what? This article shows that effective professional development is not expensive relative to overall spending and that its key elements and their costs…

E.A. Johnson High School is located in Mt. Morris, Michigan, near Flint, where the city has felt deeply the impact of the area's economic decline. 72% of the student population qualify for free and reduced lunch. The staff was willing to make the changes necessary for success, but needed more than a book study. Many of the structures for…

Staff development's brand is tarnished. Many of its consumers are not satisfied. Some are angry. Others are resigned to accepting professional development as it is because they lack the will or power or knowledge to change it. Educators respond in these ways because their staff development experiences are often shallow and do little to help them…

Today's education policy places a high priority on improving teacher quality and teaching effectiveness in U.S. schools. Standards-based professional learning requires teachers to have deep subject knowledge and the most effective pedagogy for teaching the subject. States and school districts are charged with establishing teacher professional…

Learning communities are best defined as "ongoing groups who meet regularly for the purposes of increasing their own learning and that of their students." Although learning communities vary in form and context, they share some fundamental core beliefs and values. Based on the idea that educators can learn from each other, learning communities…