Learning Forward

The effectiveness of professional development aimed at increasing cultural awareness among teachers depends on matching the needs of teachers to the appropriate approach. For the last 10 years, we have been conducting research on educators’ beliefs about diversity, their level of cultural knowledge, and application of that knowledge to practice. Our […]

Today’s educators work under tre- mendous pressure. They are held accountable for preparing all stu- dents to meet increasingly rigor- ous academic standards. They must enable all students to per- form at levels of proficiency, even those students without the preparation, attitudes, and behaviors necessary for optimal learning. In spite […]

Content focus and coherence are fundamental to professional devel- opment that helps teachers boost student learning. Learning Forward’s Outcomes standard emphasizes that teacher learning should be focused on subject-matter content and how students learn that content, and consistent with the in- dividual, school, and district factors that shape teachers’ work lives. […]

All work to improve the quality of profes- sional development must begin with one simple assumption: Teaching is an incredibly complex profession that draws on a wide set of intellectual and emotional skills. Even the best teachers need to continue to learn and improve their practice, and many are willing to […]

One indisputable finding from our years of research on what it takes to conduct successful change in schools and colleges is this: Introducing new practices alone seldom results in new practices being incorporated into ongoing classroom practices. For example, we were dismayed at the recent release of two substantive studies […]

Designers reside mostly in school districts and schools and can have primary assignments of all sorts. In many districts, central office personnel are most visible on design committees, but teachers, principals, and superintendents are included. Members of professional learning communities can design their own processes, and individual teachers can, too. […]

 Learning communities are best defined as “ongoing groups … who meet regularly for the purposes of increasing their own learning and that of their students“ (Lieberman & Miller, 2008, p. 2). Although learning communities vary in form and context, they share some fundamental core beliefs and values. Based on the […]

Very little of the professional development literature identifies its costs. Many say good professional development is expensive, but what is meant by expensive, and if so, expensive relative to what? This article shows that effective professional development is not expensive relative to overall spending and that its key elements and […]

Learning Forward’s Standards for Professional Learning have the potential to influence educational policy and practice in profound ways for the systems that are courageous enough to take them seriously, and the Data standard is a critical element systemwide. Schools are overwhelmed with data warehouses, colorful charts and graphs, and endless […]

The effectiveness of professional development aimed at increasing cultural awareness among teachers depends on matching the needs of teachers to the appropriate approach. For the last 10 years, we have been conducting research on educators’ beliefs about diversity, their level of cultural knowledge, and application of that knowledge to practice. […]