Write For The Learning Professional
The Learning Professional is the flagship publication of Learning Forward. The magazine is published six times a year and is included in all categories of membership in Learning Forward. Issues are organized around themes; each issue also includes non-thematic articles. Articles that are appropriate for an announced theme are more likely to be published. Upcoming themes and a submission form are listed below.
Learning Forward members and the field rely on The Learning Professional for practical articles about timely professional learning topics and strategies. The editors look for articles that reflect the Standards for Professional Learning and that are written in an engaging, complete, and concise manner.
The Learning Professional offers no payment for articles. The Learning Professional is not peer- or blind-reviewed. Decisions regarding publication are made by the editor and staff. We reserve the right to reject poor quality or untimely material, whether solicited or otherwise, at any time during the editing process. Initial acceptance of an article is not a guarantee of publication.
Manuscripts, editorial correspondence, and questions about submissions should be sent to christy.colclasure@learningforward.org.
The Learning Professional 2025 themes
Learning designs – February 2025
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to growing educators’ skills. Great professional learning is customized to educators’ needs and systems’ goals. So how do you design professional learning that is aligned with both local goals and best practices and research? Grounded in the Learning Designs standard from the Standards for Professional Learning, this issue will examine the “how” of professional learning. Articles might cover effective facilitation strategies that engage educators and build their buy-in; how to build on adult learners’ existing knowledge; how to integrate expectations for collaboration; equity considerations; and how to make the most of educators’ time.
Submission deadline: December 1, 2024
Navigating new roles – April 2025
Getting a new position is exciting, but what happens afterward? And what do educators need to stay and thrive in these new roles? This issue will dig into how to support new-to-the-role professionals at all points along the career continuum, including teachers, coaches, support staff, and leaders at all levels. Topics might include mentoring for novice teachers, helping coaches understand their role and navigate common challenges, leadership coaching, and learning communities for new teacher leaders. Articles should address how such endeavors are part of systemic efforts to cultivate skills and excellence over time.
Submission deadline: January 1, 2025
Measuring learning – June 2025
Research shows that high-quality professional learning makes a difference for student outcomes. But how do you measure the progress of specific professional learning initiatives? How do you collect, analyze, and make meaning of multiple forms of data? Grounded in our commitment to evaluation and our readers’ requests for more information on conducting it, this issue will home in on measuring the results where they matter most—for students. It will feature how educators, professional learning designers, evaluators, and other practitioners measure the implementation and impact of professional learning and use the findings to improve initiatives and tell stories of success. We invite submissions about research questions, evaluation methods, and recent study findings. We also welcome readers to send questions about evaluation and measurement for us to pose to evaluation experts and share in Q & A articles.
Submission deadline: March 1, 2025
Professional learning resources – August 2025
Supporting the professional growth and expertise of teachers requires resources, including funding, time, technology, curriculum, and more. How do you secure and sustain those resources, document their use, and make sure you’re getting the most out of them? At a time when Covid relief funds are winding down and many budgets are tightening, how can you do more with less? This issue will feature ways educators are finding, getting creative with, and maintaining the resources that enable high-quality professional learning and improvement for students. It will also share strategies and stories about Title II-A, the U.S. Department of Education’s funds allocated for educator professional learning.
Submission deadline: May 1, 2025
Learning communities for leaders – October 2025
Leadership can feel like a lonely endeavor, but it shouldn’t be. Just like teachers, leaders learn and grow to be their best in community. This often requires going beyond the barriers of school buildings and district offices to connect across organizational boundaries. This issue will explore models of leadership development and support grounded in collaboration. Articles might address topics such as: how to create safe and encouraging spaces to connect with role-alike professionals, strategies to facilitate collaborative professional learning both within and outside of school walls, leadership communities of practice, and innovative career pathways in leadership.
Submission deadline: July 1, 2025
Meeting the needs of today’s learners – December 2025
Today’s students have to manage a lot on top of learning: cell phones and social media distract from learning while anxiety and chronic absenteeism are on the rise. How can educators teach students who are not fully ready to learn? Some of the solutions to making schools more welcoming, engaging, and effective for today’s learners lie in professional learning. What are schools doing that’s working, and what data do they have to show it? Topics of interest include: supporting positive and productive school cultures, building students’ self-regulation and readiness to learn, improving social and emotional outcomes as part of academic improvement, and restorative practices or initiatives that have increased student safety, student belonging, and connection. Articles should focus on the professional learning that enables successful approaches to holistic student success.
Submission deadline: September 1, 2025
Submission guidelines
The Learning Professional looks for brief (2,000-2,500 words) manuscripts that are helpful to practicing pre-K-12 educators and administrators, as well as those who support their work (e.g., nonprofit organizations, higher education). Published articles will have as their primary focus professional learning and may include the purpose and goals of the learning, what the learning looks like, the support and context related to successful implementation, who is involved, and the results and impact of the learning.
Our primary audience is education leaders, including superintendents and other district staff; principals and assistant principals; directors of professional learning, directors of curriculum and instruction, and other administrators responsible for professional learning; instructional coaches and other leaders of professional learning; lead teachers and classroom teachers; along with those who lead, conceive, or evaluate professional learning from organizations outside of schools or school systems, for example universities and non-profit organizations.
Highest consideration will be given to work that is aligned with the Standards for Professional Learning and can provide data demonstrating improvements in educator practices and/or student learning.
We prefer articles written in an informal, conversational style. Writers should avoid educational jargon and complicated phrasing. They should write in simple, direct sentences. When appropriate, writers may share their stories in the first person.
We discourage the use of lengthy quotations from other published work. References to previous research and writing should be in support of and woven into the writer’s unique arguments or insights. We look for articles that make a unique contribution and generally do not publish literature reviews unless they have a new and specific application or insight.
Writers should look for opportunities to break out interesting information into separate "sidebars'' to run with the main article.
If methodology is essential for understanding, please include that in a sidebar and not in the main text of the manuscript. Writers also can include a list of additional resources (books, articles, videos, web sites) that are not referenced directly in the article. Where appropriate, graphs and charts also can be used to illustrate key points. Writers should provide the raw data for such charts and not attempt to produce a publishable graphic on their own.
Submit your manuscript using the form below
Format for submissions:
No manuscript should exceed 12 pages, including references and charts. Please number the pages and include the author's name next to the page number on each page.
Cover page should include
- Suggested title of article. (Please note that all titles are subject to change by Learning Forward.)
- Writer's name.
- The theme and date of issue for which the manuscript is being submitted.
- Complete contact information for the writer(s), including phone, address, and e-mail address. This information is essential for follow up contact.
- Writer's current professional position. You may also identify any major articles or books you have recently published.
- A word count.
Learning Forward acknowledges every manuscript that is received. Writers should expect a confirmation message within several weeks of the manuscript deadline.
The Learning Professional editor and other staff review each submission to determine its appropriateness for The Learning Professional. Manuscripts are either accepted as submitted, returned for revisions, or rejected.
We ask that you not submit manuscripts that are currently under consideration or in process with another publication.
Queries
An early option for writers: Well in advance of the final deadline, writers can submit by e-mail a brief synopsis of a few hundred words regarding an article they would like to write. Either the editor or the director of communications of The Learning Professional will respond regarding the appropriateness of the idea and offer early guidance about producing such an article.
Style and references
Writers are responsible for providing complete and accurate references, as appropriate. For references, The Learning Professional adapts guidelines established in the most recent Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Please be sure to consult APA's 2020 revision of the manual; new requirements include noting a DOI number when applicable. Writers are expected to ensure that their references comply with those guidelines.
Cite references in text like this (Sparks, 1997) and list them in bibliographic form at the end of the article. See a recent issue of The Learning Professional for examples of citations.
Authors bear full responsibility for the accuracy of citations, quotations, and information supplied for figures and charts. For questions of spelling, we use Webster's Eleventh Edition Collegiate Dictionary.
Where appropriate, writers also can include a list of additional resources, even if they are not directly cited in the article.
The editing process
If your article is accepted, it will be edited for publication by the editor and managing editor and will also be copy edited.
During this process, the editor is likely to contact you to clarify certain points. Because we strive for high-quality writing, your article is likely to undergo substantial editing, including some rewriting and reorganizing. Remember that this is a normal part of the editing process for any publication with high standards. Don't be startled or upset that an editor is changing your article. The editor's goal is to produce the most readable and interesting article possible for the magazine's targeted audience. Your help and understanding in this process is greatly appreciated.
You will receive an edited version to review, correct, and approve. Typically, you will be asked to return the article within several days.
When you receive this final edited version, you also will receive a copyright form. Signing that form gives Learning Forward permission to print your article in The Learning Professional, to post it on our web site, and to use it for other electronic purposes. When signing this form, you verify that your work is original. Authors are responsible for citing other works as appropriate and seeking permissions to include artifacts or elements that are not original.
Photographs
The Learning Professional encourages writers to submit appropriate photographs to illustrate their articles. We prefer full-color, high-resolution (minimum 300 dpi) jpgs.
When a photograph has been accepted, please include a note with each photograph that:
- Identifies the individuals pictured;
- Describes what they are doing and where; and
- Names the photographer.
Writers are responsible for obtaining written permission for publication from the subjects of the photographs. If photographs have been published by a local newspaper or magazine, we will make the necessary contacts to obtain those photos if you will provide us with the appropriate information. The Learning Professional also will bear the cost of purchasing such photographs.
When your article is published
Writers in North America receive one complimentary copy of the issue containing their published articles. Those copies will be mailed as soon as they are received in The Learning Professional office. All other authors will receive a PDF of their article upon request. In addition, writers will receive instructions for purchasing additional copies if they wish to do so.
