I remember when my kids were little and they wanted my attention, they would get increasingly louder and more persuasive until they succeeded in drawing my attention away from whatever I thought should take precedence at that moment. Well, professional learning leaders, it’s time for us to get louder and more persuasive. The noise overtaking…

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, we invited our community of professional learning leaders to share how they acknowledge, promote, and celebrate the growth of teachers throughout the year. In the infographic below, we’ve included their approaches, along with a few from a Learning Forward cover story and free tool titled “Celebrate professional transitions and…

We all know that change takes time, but do schools have that time? With students and schools facing urgent, widespread challenges, it can feel like the pace of many improvement approaches is simply too slow. And yet, it’s clear we get nowhere when we take a scattershot approach to teaching and learning strategies. There’s no…

The fight over the federal debt ceiling and deficit reduction took an ominous turn for educators last week with the U.S. House of Representatives’ passage – on a razor-thin 217-215 vote – of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023. In exchange for raising the federal debt ceiling until March 31, 2024,…

Consider a scenario where you’re a member of a school’s in-house instructional staff and you receive a link to a professional learning survey from someone at the district. For a moment you think, “Wait, I already turned in my exit ticket…the room was too cold but we had an interesting icebreaker to start the session.”…

Welcome to Standards for Professional Learning Week 2023! I hope you celebrate with us by joining our live daily presentations focused on topics that address pressing issues for educators right now: advancing outcomes for all learners; elevating educator voices; embedding equity; examining impact; and advocating for support and equitable funding to ensure high-quality professional learning…

On April 18, 2023, the U.S. House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Subcommittee held a hearing to discuss the U.S. Department of Education’s budget request for fiscal year 2024. In his testimony, Secretary Miguel Cardona continued to focus on the department’s “Raise the Bar” initiative, arguing that President Biden’s fiscal year 2024 budget…

Dean Shareski shared the above tweet in October 2021 that sparked robust debate, with educators of all levels sharing opinions on the topic. Learning Forward is keenly interested in Shareski’s question, so we reshared his tweet and posed this question to teachers earlier this year. We received more than 100 responses across Twitter and LinkedIn,…

For those who support teachers, it can feel like there are myriad urgent needs, especially when educators are stretched thin and students are struggling, as many are now. How do you prioritize your support, and where do you start? The effort-to-impact matrix is a simple but valuable tool that can help instructional coaches, teacher teams,…

On March 9, President Biden unveiled his budget request for fiscal year 2024. The major disappointment is that the administration included no increase for Title II-A, the only federal program devoted exclusively to supporting professional learning activities. The administration’s budget signals that Title II-A is not a priority. This does not set us up well…