This article describes the Literacy Design Collaborative, a network of teachers committed to developing literacy-rich instruction in the content areas and building expertise from teacher to teacher. Drawing on research of adult learning and leveraging new technologies, Literacy Design Collaborative provides the design system, tools, and supports…

Most educators probably know what it feels like to be part of an unproductive professional learning community--one where the topics range from last night's TV episodes to everyone's weekend plans before coming around to instructional issues. Other communities might just feel like another staff meeting with a list of announcements. But there are…

Snapshots of two Colorado districts in the Redesign PD Community of Practice: Denver Public Schools' professional learning partners help subject-matter experts and others provide educators with a high-quality learning experience. In Jefferson County, Learning Forward's Standards for Professional Learning guide educators to make teacher…

For eight years, more than a dozen district superintendents in New Jersey have joined together for a full day each month during the school year to listen to and learn from each other as a community of practice. Known as the New Jersey Network of Superintendents, this community of practice has a tight focus on advancing equity through improvement…

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…

Groups that come together in whatever fashion--in social networks, via online video conferencing, or around conference tables--share in solutions to problems of practice and therefore feel collectively responsible for the success of all their students. This accountability toward not only a solution but also to improved outcomes is a fundamental…

As part of the Redesign Professional Development (PD) Community of Practice, which includes 22 school systems across the country, Pittsburgh Public Schools is working to build greater alignment and coherence into its professional learning efforts. That means creating a district-wide professional learning system that helps the schools grow…

How do educators at a systems level know that professional learning is impacting teacher practice in a way that leads to improved student outcomes? California's Long Beach Unified School District, a member of Learning Forward's Redesign PD Community of Practice, partnered with other districts from across the country to answer that question. As…

In this article the authors share their experience of Teacher Lab, a job-embedded form of professional learning that has been a critical addition to professional learning practice for nearly a decade in the Avondale School District in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Using a full-day released time format, Teacher Lab combines preobservation dialogue and…

As they write about the Learning Communities standard in "Reach the Highest Standard in Professional Learning: Learning Communities," authors Ann Lieberman and Lynne Miller consider why communities have gained widespread attention and support and summarize the established research base about them. They also describe three contexts in…

When school district leaders attend instructional sessions about professional learning, they might take away a few ideas and strategies they want to try. But when experts provide those districts with ongoing coaching, the educators are more likely to gain the ability to create strong professional learning systems that benefit all educators. That…

Effective and authentic communities of practice in schools have the potential to support teachers in improving their instructional practices around perennial challenges, such as improving the literacy skills of all students. But before they can achieve such goals, communities of practice take time to build, effort to sustain, and ongoing support…

As the cultural and experience gap between an increasingly diverse student population and predominantly white, female educators widens, schools continue to rely heavily on the pedagogies, curricula, assessments, and interventions that more effectively served a homogeneous group of educators than they do a heterogeneous student population. The…