Learning Forward has received a $500,000 grant from MetLife Foundation to disseminate and implement its newly revised Standards for Professional Learning. Forty professional associations and education organizations contributed to the revision of the standards following extensive re-search and input from educators and policymakers worldwide. MetLife Foundation also provided funding for the research and development of the new standards.

“We believe that high standards for professional develop- ment increase learning for everyone in a school, educators as well as stu- dents,” said Dennis White, president and CEO of MetLife Foundation. “Our support will help Learning Forward, other leadership organizations, and schools across the nation promote the new standards and put them to work.”

“Revision of the standards is just the beginning of the process to transform professional learning so that it increases educator effectiveness and student results. The real work is mov- ing the standards into both policy and practice to increase the quality of professional learning,” says Learning Forward Executive Director Stephanie Hirsh. “This support from MetLife Foundation will enable broad-based dissemination, development of new tools to support implementation and evaluation of professional learning, and strategies to monitor the impact in both policy and practice,” she said.