Have you ever been in a room full of people and felt completely alone? I’ve actually experienced that feeling during several conferences I’ve attended throughout my career. I remember walking into the receptions, plenary sessions, and even small concurrent sessions without knowing a soul and then exiting without having a conversation with anyone.

Learning Forward’s theory of action is based on assumptions that educators won’t achieve their high goals for student learning if they don’t set and measure high goals for educator learning. With the right goals in mind, the hard work begins.

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.

Educators often learn through spoken and written words. Animals learn by observation and action. What if educators learned more like the animals?

When the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed into law in December, we celebrated that it included an improved definition of professional learning even as we asked educators to create professional learning systems that see that definition as necessary but not sufficient.

Collective efficacy — educators’ belief that in working together, they have the capability to improve significant challenges in schools — doesn’t just happen when systems or schools offer educators the opportunity to collaborate.

In its most recent work, the Wallace Foundation has been engaged in two initiatives to strengthen leaders. Its Principal Pipeline Initiative is helping districts get clear about the job leaders are expected to do, the training they need to perform their work, the kind of hiring practices that will get the right person in the appropriate position, and the kind of induction and ongoing support that will help them be effective. A second Wallace initiative seeks to strengthen the practices of district principal supervisors — those key individuals who support building principals in their work.

We are fortunate to have a wealth of options to choose from when we plan for and participate in professional learning. There seem to be two distinct strategies, each with its own champion.

A panel of educators recently discussed the question of teacher agency in professional learning hosted by Learning Forward and the National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future. The organizations co-published Moving from Compliance to Agency: What Teachers Need to Make Professional Learning Work, a white paper that explores the importance of amplifying teacher voice in professional learning and outlines strategies to do so.

As a member of Learning Forward’s PD Redesign Community of Practice, Riverside Unified School District is seeking a systematic way to evaluate the impact of professional development on teachers in their district. Learn more about how the Riverside Team is resolving issues like overlapping programs and finding time for the PD Redesign work.