Learning Forward’s Standards for Professional Learning establish the core attributes of effective professional learning. All people and entities with either direct or indirect responsibility for students’ education could benefit from well-designed and effective professional learning, but understanding what the standards look like when they are in operation can be a challenge.

Innovation Configuration (IC) maps offer a solution to this problem. IC maps identify and describe the major components of new practice — in this case, the Standards for Professional Learning — in operation. The IC maps show a continuum of specific behaviors that facilitate the achievement of desired outcomes within each standard. The range of behaviors is displayed from left to right, with the most desirable at the left and moving to least desirable on the right. Naming these specific behaviors is intended to help educators move toward the highest levels of implementation.

IC maps have been created for 12 distinct roles in education that share responsibility for professional learning. These are presented in three volumes:

• School-based roles: teachers, coaches/teacher leaders, principals, and school leadership teams;
• School system roles: central office staff, director of professional learning, superintendent, and school board; and
• External roles: education agency providers, professional associations, institutions of higher education, and external partners.

The four groups in the external roles volume support professional learning beyond the local school and school system by establishing policies, providing resources and technical assistance, and preparing and supporting professional learning leaders so that professional learning achieves its goal of increasing educator effectiveness and student achievement.

The IC maps on pp. 53-56 outline for external partners the three key ideas of the Outcomes standard and how they look in practice. External partners include vendors, technical assistance providers, regional centers, public and private agency staff, individuals, and others that provide professional learning to support educators at all levels of the educational system.