Educators working to achieve changes in classroom teaching practices that lead to improvement in student learning need to gain clarity in where they are going--what they want to accomplish. Teachers in a professional learning community need a road map as they begin learning and applying a new practice to ensure they reach their intended goal…

This article is a follow-up to "Focus first on outcomes" (Bradley, Munger, & Hord, 2015), published in the August 2015 issue of "JSD" ["Journal of Staff Development"]. That article set the stage by creating awareness of the need and purpose for thinking first about outcomes, not activities, when starting a change…

This article addresses the challenge of personalizing learning while also ensuring alignment with system and school improvement plans. Leaders of the York Region District School Board in Ontario knew that what took their high-performing school district from good to great would not take it from great to excellent. The district's early model of…

A sweet spot is a place where a combination of factors comes together to produce the best results with greatest efficiency. As school systems around the world are increasing expectations for what students learn and what educators do to support their learning, they must aim for the sweet spot to achieve maximum results for their efforts. When…

Collaborative learning teams are improving teacher practice and student learning results in the Dallas Center-Grimes Community School District near Des Moines, Iowa. Since 2009, all teachers and principals in the district have participated in collaborative learning teams to study a process known as assessment for learning, in which formative…

This article describes the collaborative efforts of the Webster Central School District in New York, USA, and the Learning Forward's Center for Results consultants, in the fall of 2010 in a focus to improve the elementary literacy program. The School District realized it was vital to have a strong, sustained foundation of professional and student…

Research highlights the importance of individualized approaches and coaching to ongoing professional learning (Darling-Hammond, Wei, Andree, Richardson, & Orphanos, 2009). The purpose of this article is to describe an initiative that set out to help all students become proficient readers by 3rd grade. It demonstrates how coaching can support…

School leadership is second only to classroom teaching as an influence on pupil learning. Research makes clear that leadership must be at the forefront when attempting to reform underachieving schools. The question is: What kind of leadership? Not just any type of principal leadership will suffice for schools striving to build the instructional…

Teacher education and professional development prepare teachers with up-to-date knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for effective teaching. To sustain this, however, hinges on continued professional learning within schools. Research shows that establishing long-term conditions that allow teachers to learn continuously from one another…

Facing a superintendent change in 2006-2007, Decatur Public School District 61 in Illinois was already confronting the major challenges of a widening student achievement gap, increasing dropout rate, and schools not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). From the beginning, Superintendent Gloria J. Davis professed several simple beliefs that…

The odds were stacked against the new elementary school from the beginning. In its favor, the school was a beautiful building with an established principal. Beyond that, anyone would predict that the first year would be tough. The staff consisted of new teachers and transfers from across the district. The students were reassigned from two…

Hanging in the entryway of Quakertown Community Senior High School in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, was the school vision: "Enter to Learn; Leave to Serve." The school vision statement contained the right words, but it did not inspire anyone. In many classrooms, teachers lectured from the front of the room, students sat in rows taking notes,…

In the Old Adobe Union School District in Petaluma, California, the school staff's goal is to assure that all teachers make the fundamental shift from teacher-centric to learner-centric thinking. For them, this is what distinguishes great teachers from good teachers. They believe this level of expertise takes years to develop and that schools play…

Discusses the need for coordinated efforts between an organization and its staff development support that are congruent with the articulated goals of the district, the school sites, and individual members of the organization. Strategies are presented for changing the role of staff developers in renewal efforts that support a learning organization.…

When teachers at Madison Elementary School in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin attended a class to examine test data, they started a change process that led the whole school to learn differently--from teachers to students. This article discusses on how whole-faculty study teams have created stronger professional connections and collaboration between teachers…