The teaching profession requires continuous learning, and in 2014, a new model of professional learning was introduced in California by the Instructional Leadership Corps (ILC), a group of expert teachers who organize local professional development to spark iterative changes in practice. In the four years following its launch, the ILC connected…

School reform, initiated by the No Child Left Behind Act, has developed Common Core State Standards to promote both equity and excellence in education. The local problem that this study addressed involved understanding the effects of Common Core State Standards implementation on Professional Development and the use of Professional Learning…

Over $18 billion is spent annually on professional development for in-service teachers. This study examined the focus, duration, and impact of professional development activities in which elementary (students ages 5-11) and middle school (students ages 11-14) teachers participated. Ninety-eight teacher-participants completed an online survey about…

This Executive Leadership Portfolio (ELP) represents purposeful, professional development that supports teachers and students as they implement Hodgson Vocational Technical High School's instructional focus called CREST. CREST is an acronym that signifies Collaborative learning, Risk-free environment, Essential questions, Summarizing strategies…

The Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) was created to support teachers in implementing college and career readiness standards in order to teach literacy skills throughout the content areas. Teachers work collaboratively with coaches to further develop their expertise and design standards-driven, literacy-rich writing assignments within their…

The authors recently conducted a randomized controlled trial that showed a significant impact of teachers' lesson study, supported by mathematical resources, on both teachers' and students' understanding of fractions. The research and mathematical resources are described in the second part of this article. First the authors examine some of the…

While there is considerable scholarship describing principles for effective professional development, there have been few attempts to examine these principles in practice. In this paper, we identify and examine the particular design features of a mathematics professional development experience provided for middle grades teachers over 14 weeks. The…

This new working paper uses survey responses and student grades and test scores to examine how math instruction and student outcomes have changed in schools with differing levels of CCSS professional development since the implementation of the new Common Core Mathematics standards (CCSS-M) in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) in 2014-15. It found that…

In the era of standards-based reforms, informal teacher leadership is a critical factor in realizing instructional improvement. In this paper, we report on data from a one-year study of four early career mathematics teachers engaging in professional development around Common Core mathematical practices and leadership. Our findings highlight how…

This manuscript focuses on practical questions in a study that describes the perceptions of four teachers at the beginning stages of Common Core Mathematics implementation in a historically underperforming school district. The overarching goal was to understand the collaborative inquiry experience in a lesson study that focused on teaching the…

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to identify how PLCs influence the high school English teachers' practice in response to key instructional shifts within teaching standards in the Southwest United States. Legislation from the last two decades puts expectations in place that raise the bar for American students and their teachers…

Catholic elementary and secondary schools across the country recently adopted standards reflective of the Common Core State Standards to align instruction with state and national guidelines requiring the revision of curriculum and the adjustment of instruction to meet the new standards from an ideological model. This article describes a…

The challenges of implementing the Common Core State Standards and Science Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) provide momentum for facilitating teacher learning far beyond the capacity of current formal and informal professional development in most school districts. The implementation of the curricula that substantially increase the learning…

Engaged in the evaluation of LDC tools since June 2011, UCLA's National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) is using multiple data sources and a quasi-experimental design to examine LDC implementation and impact in two cohorts of schools in two large, urban school districts. This report presents the results…

Engaged inthe evaluation of LDC tools since June 2011, UCLA's National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) is using multiple data sources and a quasi-experimental design to examine LDC implementation and impact in two cohorts of schools in two large, urban school districts. This report presents the results on…