Evaluating the effectiveness of staff development and demonstrating its impact on student achievement are more important than ever. The language in staff development policies requires districts to show evidence of professional learning’s ability to improve student learning. The National Staff Development Council, some states’ legislation, and the federal No Child Left Behind Act all call for rigorous evaluation of professional learning programs (see “Dancing to the same tune” on the next page). With more emphasis on accountability, staff developers will want to explore ways to evaluate their programs and to link staff development to student learning. An evaluation also will help providers and leaders improve their programs. “Evaluation is a systemic, purposeful process of studying, reviewing, and analyzing data gathered from multiple sources in order to make informed decisions about a program”(Killion, 2002, p. 42). A good evaluation of a professional learning program can be accomplished by following eight steps. This eight-step process is drawn from