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Curriculum-Based Professional Learning

Network advances curriculum-based professional learning

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The value and promise of teaching with high-quality instructional materials has been well-documented, but research suggests that good curricula can only do so much to advance student learning. High-quality curriculum-based professional learning is required to realize its potential (Chu et al., 2022). Diverse stakeholders must work together to produce improved professional learning that strengthens educational experiences and outcomes for students. “...Research suggests that good curricula can only do so much to advance student learning. High-quality curriculum-based professional learning is required to realize its potential.” -Michelle Bowman #HQPL #StudentSuccess Share on X Learning Forward’s new Curriculum-Based Professional Learning network aims to do just that. The network provides member districts with an opportunity to work collaboratively with Learning Forward to advance the use of curriculum-based professional learning (more…)

Achieving the full benefit of new curriculum

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To illustrate how Standards for Professional Learning can guide educators in navigating their challenges, Learning Forward created a set of fictional case vignettes that draw on real experiences. The vignettes show educators in varied roles and settings as they apply professional learning to problems of practice. The following narrative homes in on high-quality curriculum and the vital role of professional learning in building educators’ capacity to implement it. Prompts for reflection and discussion are included to assist with applying the lessons to other contexts and situations. This vignette can be used alone or in combination with the vignette published in the February 2023 issue of The Learning Professional, which focused on equity-centered leadership, or other vignettes available at standards.learningforward.org. Suggestions for use Read the following (more…)

New look, new standards

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Leaders in North River School District (a fictional district) were disappointed. For two years, they had known their middle grades students were struggling in reading and language arts. They had instituted a range of efforts to improve instruction, such as longer reading blocks and one-on-one tutoring. But when they looked at end-of-year student achievement results and educator survey data, they recognized that their recent efforts had not been effective. Student achievement had remained flat or, in some cases, fallen. Even more troubling, the declines were steepest for students from marginalized communities. The leaders had a difficult conversation about which efforts to abandon, which to continue, and which new paths to pursue to ensure all students would excel in reading and language arts. The directors of (more…)

Curriculum and instruction take a front seat in professional learning

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Curriculum is an essential but often underemphasized factor in quality teaching and student learning. One part of the problem is that teachers have few opportunities to learn about and practice with curriculum even when their districts have selected high-quality materials. Nearly a third of teachers have access to less than five hours of curriculum-related professional learning per year, and a quarter of teachers say they have no access to such learning at all (Doan et. al, 2021). This is shocking, considering the improvements curriculum developers have been making to instructional materials in recent years and the fact that teachers need support to leverage that content. Learning Forward, which since 1994 has created and supported the use of comprehensive professional learning standards, is encouraging education leaders (more…)

New curriculum demands new support

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In 2017, Chicago Public Schools administrators were debriefing what they had observed while visiting several schools. They wondered why the focus of instruction was so vastly different not only from school to school but classroom to classroom in the same school. They grew concerned that some students had more access to high-quality learning opportunities than others. Soon, their discussion homed in on curriculum. Several administrators referred to a research report they had studied that examined the importance of grade-appropriate assignments to student success. The researchers found that “[w] hen students who started the year behind had greater access to grade-appropriate assignments, they closed the outcomes gap with their peers by more than seven months” (TNTP, 2018). Others referred to research studies linking the quality and (more…)

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Put learning in high gear

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In 2016, the Wake County Public School System in North Carolina, the nation’s 15th-largest school district, confronted two dilemmas common in U.S. education. First, a quality review had revealed weaknesses in its literacy curriculum. Although curriculum can have profound effects on student learning, not all curricula are rigorous and engaging (Steiner, 2017). Second, Wake struggled with professional learning for new literacy standards and practice shifts. Research has found that teaching expertise is the most important factor in school effectiveness, but few teachers believe their professional learning is effective (Wiener & Pimentel, 2017; TNTP, 2015). To address these difficulties, Wake adopted EL Education’s open-source 3-8 language arts instructional model. This model integrates a standards-aligned curriculum aimed at challenging, engaging, and empowering students with paced assessments, detailed (more…)

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