There’s no question that Learning Forward values collaboration and community as critical elements of effective professional learning. It’s not just by chance that Learning Communities is the first of the Standards for Professional Learning. Learning collaboratively and collective responsibility contribute to more successful learning for students. I can point to three readings that will help leaders deepen their understanding of why collaboration in schools is so important, why it is central to our definition of professional learning and why it must be embedded in the vision and values of a comprehensive professional learning system. First is an article called “Deep smarts” by Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap (2004). Deep smarts, according to the authors, is the valuable know-how that employees build over time in an