I recently heard about a troubling professional learning experience from one of the teachers I spoke with at Learning Forward’s Annual Conference in St. Louis last December. He had just spent a district professional development day learning to teach high schoolers how to make a tray of nachos. Yes, you read that correctly. While his colleagues who teach core subjects like math and reading spent the day in content-oriented team learning, every “leftover” teacher from grades K-12 — music, physical education, health, business, and others — focused on nachos. The district staff leading the activity didn’t connect the exercise to any stated outcomes, and this teacher knew his district had wasted a precious opportunity. Why does this sort of thing happen? And more importantly, what