The delay in releasing $2.19 billion in Title II-A Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants is an unacceptable disruption to the professional learning pipeline that sustains our nation’s educators and impacts the students they serve. Title II-A is the only federal funding stream solely dedicated to professional learning — supporting teachers, principals, and instructional leaders in…

The day before states were supposed to receive the first tranche of their FY25 K-12 education funds, the Department of Education sent letters to states informing them that it was delaying allocations for seven large programs, which collectively total nearly $7 billion. While the delay had been hinted for several weeks, the inclusion of Title…

This month, our Connect newsletter team sat down with Sharron Helmke, an ICF-certified coach and Learning Forward’s senior vice president of professional services, to mine her expertise on coaching, specifically how coaching is uniquely valuable during challenging times, helping educators find confidence and success amid uncertainty. Q: How does coaching help during challenging times? Here…

Late on Friday, May 30th, the White House followed up on its release of the so-called FY26 “skinny budget” with a more fully fleshed-out version. This new document retains the overall goal of slashing the Department of Education’s budget by 15.3% by proposing to eliminate $12 billion from existing programs. A large chunk of these…

Leading a school has always been immensely challenging but also critically important. Fortunately, we know definitively that a great principal actually makes learning possible for the students and teachers in the building, according to Paul Fleming, Learning Forward’s Chief Learning Officer. “Moreover, thanks to sustained research efforts from The Wallace Foundation and Vanderbilt University, we…