Professional Learning State and District Planner

The Title IIA Equity Multiplier: Leveraging Curriculum, Instructional Materials, and Professional Learning for All Students and Educators

Learning Forward, with support from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, is excited to release the Professional Learning State and District Planner, a free resource to support state, district, and school leaders with the implementation of high-quality curriculum and instructional materials through professional learning that is intensive, data-driven, job-embedded, and classroom-focused.

“Learning Forward has long positioned transformational professional learning as the pathway to equity. With this planner, practitioners at the state and local levels have a framework and powerful tools to integrate high-quality instructional materials and standards-based professional learning to significantly accelerate essential learning outcomes for students,” said Denise Glyn Borders, Learning Forward President and CEO.

The planner provides a professional learning system framework to guide state and districts through a recursive process of planning professional learning with five stages and corresponding state and district tools. The framework emphasizes the connectivity and fluidity between the stages and tools based on state and district needs and does not need to be completed in a chronological sequence.

Decision-makers can use the free activities and tools to prioritize selection and implementation of high-quality instructional materials as well as curriculum-anchored professional learning. The tools and resources also offer related guidance to ensure compliance with professional learning requirements embedded in Title II, Part A (Title IIA).

Expected benefits and outcomes from using the planner include:

• Support for classroom- or team-based and curriculum-anchored content professional learning that prepares educators to select and use high-quality curricula and instructional materials;
• Greater attention to equity-based professional learning to positively impact all students;
• Strengthened use of Title IIA funds on evidence-based strategies that result in more effective teaching and improved student outcomes;
• Tighter alignment of federally-funded activities with state priorities; and
• Alignment of expenditures with the ESSA definition of professional learning.

The goal of providing all students with opportunities for academic success has never been more important or urgent, especially because we know:

• Teachers who don’t have access to great materials hunt for them online. That process often leads to inconsistent quality that most often has a negative impact on low-income students of color. A 2017 RAND analysis found that 96% of teachers use Google and nearly 75% of teachers use Pinterest to find lessons and materials (Opfer, Kaufman, Thompson, 2016).
• When students who started the year behind grade level were given more grade-appropriate assignments, stronger instruction, deeper engagement, and higher expectations, the gap between these students and their higher achieving peers began to narrow substantially (TNTP, 2018).

Access the Professional Learning State and District Planner here: essa.learningforward.org. Download the information sheet here. Questions about the Planner or requests for support can be directed to Paul Fleming, Senior Vice President, at paul.fleming@learningforward.org.

References

Opfer, V. Darleen, Julia H. Kaufman, and Lindsey E. Thompson, Implementation of K–12 State Standards for Mathematics and English Language Arts and Literacy: Findings from the American Teacher Panel. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2016. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1529-1.html.

TNTP, The Opportunity Myth: What Students Can Show Us About How School Is Letting Them Down-And How To Fix It, 2018. Opportunitymyth.tntp.org.