The current pandemic highlights once more the pressures and threats to teacher professionalism. While many give lip service to the essential role of educators, most high-stakes decisions continue to be made by those outside of the classroom (Hong & Rowell, 2019). Teaching continues to be more of a "compliant" than "activist" profession (Sachs, 2016). Our graduate program seeks to counter this state of affairs by supporting teacher practitioner research. By employing a cycle of inquiry drawn from action research, teachers improve their own practice and professionalism. Surveys employed before and after their capstone study support our findings that teacher-produced evidence is the best "evidence-based" practice, and that practitioner research is a powerful and transformative tool for professional development (Zeichner, 2006).