DALLAS—July 20, 2011—Learning Forward has received a $500,000 grant from MetLife Foundation to disseminate and implement its newly revised Standards for Professional Learning. Forty professional associations and education organizations contributed to the revision of the standards following extensive research and input from educators and policymakers worldwide. MetLife Foundation also provided funding for the research and development of the new standards. The new Standards for Professional Learning were released on Monday, July 18 at the Learning Forward 2011 Summer Conference in Indianapolis.
“We believe that high standards for professional development increase learning for everyone in a school, educators as well as students,” said Dennis White, president and CEO of MetLife Foundation. “Our support will help Learning Forward, other leadership organizations and schools across the nation promote the new standards and put them to work.”
“Revision of the standards is just the beginning of the process to transform professional learning so that it increases educator effectiveness and student results. The real work is moving the standards into both policy and practice to increase the quality of professional learning,” says Learning Forward Executive Director Stephanie Hirsh. “This support from MetLife Foundation will enable broad-based dissemination, development of new tools to support implementation and evaluation of professional learning, and strategies to monitor the impact in both policy and practice.”
Standards for Professional Learning delineate seven indicators of effective professional learning focused on improving educator practice and student results. When fully implemented, the standards empower educators to be active partners in determining the focus of their own learning, how it occurs, and how they evaluate its effectiveness. The standards give educators the information they need to take leadership roles as advocates for and facilitators of effective professional learning.
For most educators working in schools, professional learning is the most accessible means they have to develop new knowledge, skills, and practices necessary to better meet students’ learning needs. If educators are not engaged throughout their careers in new learning experiences that enable them to better serve their students, both educators and students suffer.
