How does one overcome the challenges to finding time for meaningful professional learning? The authors asked seven experts in the field, and these practitioners offer powerful strategies for making better use of educator time. An example from Illinois centers student data in school systems as an essential component of a school's overall commitment…

Data is ubiquitous and inseparable from the human experience. It constantly informs and transforms interactions, decisions, and understanding. If the total amount of all the data created daily was printed on paper, it would fill a library the size of 110 Libraries of Congress. As a senior research consultant for an education market research and…

Educators have long been awash in a sea of standardized test score data, with the understanding that their engagement with these data will lead to improvement in teaching and learning. But, in practice, these data have often been too infrequent, too lagging, and too distant from day-to-day practice to inform actionable next steps. To improve…

When Nia Thornton became an assistant principal at Central Gwinnett High School in Georgia, one of her responsibilities was to lead professional learning for the school staff. She and the school leadership team were excited engage the staff in meaningful, day-to-day learning. They knew that their work needed to be rooted in current research and…

The Standards Assessment Inventory (SAI) has provided relevant, educator-level data helping systems of all kinds -- states, districts, schools, provinces, and organizations -- gather and track data about the professional learning their educators experience. An online, confidential, valid, and reliable instrument administered to school-based…

Continuous improvement methods, widely used in fields such as medicine, can help educators identify and try out adjustments in practice, known as "change ideas," which contribute to better outcomes and more equitable systems for students. Since 2018, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested in 24 organizations across 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…

Acting to dismantle structural racial inequities begins with identifying and clearly naming the challenges being faced. Data play a powerful role in this process. Several recent publications synthesize data sources, research findings, and expert recommendations to inform and guide equity improvement efforts. A five-part "Statement of the…

Data is so deeply woven into the fabric of people's lives that it is next to impossible to imagine what a data-free life would be like. But despite the centrality of data in everyone's personal lives, when people talk about data in schools, their comments are often negative. The authors of this article believe "data" should not be a…

Schools and districts that break the correlation between race and poverty on the one hand and academic achievement on the other hold enormous lessons for any educators willing to seek them out and ask: "Your kids are doing better than mine. What are you doing?" It is important to understand that educators who ask that question--whether…

Microcredentials create opportunities for continuing growth of all teachers based on specific needs. They provide ways for teachers to lead their own learning while allowing administrators to identify and address teachers' needs as well as the expertise teachers have to share with their colleagues. Microcredentials are different from traditional…