Key Milestones and History:

• 1969-1979: Founded by Ron Brandt and others to address issues in the emerging field of staff development. Gaining interest yearly, National Staff Development Council incorporated in November 1979.
• 1994: The organization expanded its impact by developing standards for professional learning, starting the Learning Forward Academy, and creating regional affiliates.
• 2010: The NSDC officially rebranded to Learning Forward to better reflect its focus on, "learning forward" for the future of education. As Standards for Professional Learning changed over time, so, too, did the language Learning Forward used to describe educator learning.
• 2013: The board of trustees moved away from a management/advisory board to a governance board.
• 2022-2025: Learning Forward over time sustained a revision process with the title of the first iteration of standards using staff development. In 2001, the next iteration became Standards for Professional Development. In 2011, it moved to The Standards for Professional Learning.
• The 2022 update of The Standards for Professional Learning added new standards and organized the resulting 11 standards into three frames: rigorous content for each learner, transformational processes, and conditions for success. Developments in the ensuing years led to a 2025 edition to ensure access, relevance, and availability to all educators.
• Today: Learning Forward continues to define, promote, and support high-quality professional learning through its standards, publications, and the Learning Forward Academy, which has trained over 1,600 educators.
• Focus Evolution: The organization transitioned from focusing solely on teacher "needs" to an emphasis on educator learning rather than development and reflected the importance of educators’ active engagement in their learning, learning as continuous improvement rather than episodic or standalone, and the direct link between educator and student learning.
• Leadership & Structure: The board managed and led the Council from 1969 until 1984 when Dennis Sparks was hired as the association’s first Executive Director. In 1988, Stephanie Hirsh was hired as its Deputy Executive Director who, on Sparks’ retirement, led the organization for the next 13 years--shaping its focus on advocacy and research-based practices. In 2019, on Hirsh’s retirement, the board hired Denise Glyn Borders who guided the association through the difficult Covid years. The board appointed Frederick Brown, who was hired by Learning Forward in 2010, Chief Executive Officer in 2022.