Joellen Killion

What the Study Says When district and school administrators and other key leaders engage together in instructional rounds within schools, they develop social networks that assume characteristics of communities of practice. Within these communities, they build relationships and develop a common language and shared understanding about teaching and learning. The […]

What the Study Says At the end of the first of three years, a curriculum and professional development intervention for 5th-grade students with a focus on English language learners had a positive, significant effect on student achievement in science for all student groups on the researcher-designed assessment and positive, significant […]

What the Study Says University faculty led a three-year teacher professional development initiative to integrate technology into instruction in two rural, high-poverty middle schools in the Southeast. The study demonstrates that schoolwide professional development sustained over two to three years improves efficiency and effectiveness of instruction and produces significant increases […]

  What The Study Says School improvement that depends on professional development as a primary means for implementing effective instructional practice requires deliberate attention to implementation fidelity of both the content and process of professional development, the ongoing development of professional developers, and the measurement of implementation over time. When […]

The issue in brief The major challenge with time is finding it. Current school-day schedules and school-year calendars are leaner than ever because of budget reductions. States and districts have implemented furlough days to balance lean-and-mean budgets that show no sign of improving. Few are willing to take the leap […]

There are many popular misconceptions about the content of feedback in the literature. Most misconceptions about feedback result from a more traditional view of feedback as information transmitted to a learner by a knowledgeable other as a part of assessment or evaluation. Misconception 1: Feedback occurs only in performance evaluation. […]

What The Study Says Teacher coaching is a powerful form of professional learning that improves teaching practices and student achievement, yet little is known about the specific aspects of coaching programs that are more effective. Researchers used a blocked randomized experiment to study the effects of one-to-one coaching on teacher […]

Explore the tools included in Learning Forward's facilitator guide designed for teachers, teacher leaders, principals, and central office staff. See how to analyze and use the findings from "Beyond PD: Teacher Professional Learning in High-Performing Systems" in order to strengthen professional learning at the school and system levels. Find tools, […]

What's the biggest change we can make to improve student learning? A new study provides useful insights to illustrate specific practices that answer this question. The study -- by Learning First, in cooperation with the Center on International Education Benchmarking and funded by the National Center on Education and the Economy with support from the Bill & Melinda […]

What the Study Says A randomized trial study, conducted over two school years in 18 high schools in Washington, finds that An Inquiry Approach, a three-year, educative curriculum for high school science, has a positive impact on student achievement, teacher practice, and fidelity of implementation of the curriculum when the […]