Effective Professional Learning Strategies (That actually work)

Introduction

Supporting professional growth among your educators is a critical part of providing an outstanding educational experience to every student. But take a moment to reflect on professional development workshops you’ve been a part of throughout your career in education. Were they one-size-fits-all? Did they take place once in a blue moon? If these jog a memory, it’s likely the PD wasn’t very effective, and it probably didn’t make much of an impact in the classroom.

Professional development requires more than one-stop workshops, classroom observations, or offering feedback forms. It must be intentional. The recipe for true growth begins with an individualized learning process — one that gives educators a voice and choice, identifies strengths and areas for improvement, and promotes a collaborative learning culture.

In this piece, we’ll discuss the national landscape of professional development, best practices for an effective professional development program, resources for getting started, and more.

K-12 Professional Development Over the Years

Before we get into the nitty gritty of K-12 professional development, let’s take a look at where it started and how it’s evolved over time.

• Massachusetts Secretary of Education Horace Mann works to develop a system of training teachers throughout the state.
• Teachers College, Columbia University, NY, is founded with a focus on teacher preparation and the support of all children and all aspects of their well-being.
• President Lyndon Johnson signs the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which among other things, authorizes funds for professional development and other school resources
• Professional Learning Communities begin to take hold and represent a shift away from the sit-and-get model.
• NSDC's Standards for Staff Development are published.
• NSDC embarks on a 2-year project called “Evaluating Staff Development: Demonstrating Impact.”
• A year for big strides in professional development
  • No Child Left Behind is signed by George W. Bush, calling for "highly qualified teachers" and all professional development funded through the law to include activities that “are not one-day or short-term workshops or conferences.”
  • Joellen Killion releases the first edition of her book Assessing Impact, helping to shift the conversation around professional learning toward the impact on instruction and student outcomes.
  • NSDC publishes Standards for Professional Development, the second iteration of the standards.
• • President Barack Obama signs the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, providing $4.35B for the Race to the Top Fund. Among other things, Race to the Top incentivizes teacher evaluations based on multiple measures and tied to targeted professional development. Many states enact new legislation around teacher evaluations
  • NDSC changes its name to Learning Forward to reflect a greater focus on educator growth to impact student outcomes. Less emphasis is placed on "seat time" and more on demonstrating outcomes and impact.
• The 3rd version of NDSC’s (now Learning Forward) standards, the Standards for Professional Learning, are published.
• President Barack Obama signs the ‘Every Student Succeeds Act’, which defines 6 key criteria for effective professional development: sustained, intensive, job-embedded, collaborative, data-driven and classroom-focused.
• The Frontline Research & Learning Institute publishes "Bridging the Gap,” showing that professional learning has a ways to go to meet the criteria laid out by ESSA.
• Learning Forward releases a newly revised Standards for Professional Learning, offering districts the latest insight into high-quality, effective professional development.

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How the language around professional learning has evolved over time

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What is Professional Learning for Teachers?

Every educator is familiar with professional learning — although historically, this has often meant workshops after school, expert-led seminars and going to conferences. In recent years, the focus has shifted away from putting in hours, and toward learning experiences that demonstrably improve teaching and learning. So what differentiates effective professional learning from that which isn’t?

A quick and easy (we promise) legal primer provides some helpful context…

In 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaced No Child Left Behind as the most recent reauthorization of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The law enacts a shift from specific regulation of what is done in K12 to a standard for how it is done, leaving schools with more programmatic and fiscal flexibility and purporting a broader idea of academic success. With implementation resting squarely on their own shoulders, school districts have both the exciting opportunity and the weighty responsibility to make changes that truly work for them.

One area addressed by ESSA holds particular scope for effective change: professional learning (PL), or professional development (PD). ESSA lays out specific criteria for what effective professional learning looks like, but district leaders decide what they want to accomplish and must set out to make it happen.

ESSA’s 6 Standards for Professional Development

You’re likely already familiar with ESSA’s six standards for professional development, but for a refresher, it’s worth revisiting. The following definitions were defined by the Frontline Research & Learning Institute, and although your district may have differing definitions, the most important thing is that you have an aligned view amongst your department.

Sustained

Taking place over an extended period; longer than one day or a one-time workshop.

Intensive

Focused on a discreet concept, practice or program.

Collaborative

Involving multiple educators, educators and coaches or set of participants grappling with the same concept or practice and in which participants work together to achieve shared understanding.

Job-embedded

A part of the ongoing, regular work of instruction and related to teaching and learning taking place in real time in the teaching and learning environment.

Data-driven

Based upon and responsive to real time information about the needs of participants and their students.

Classroom-focused

Related to the practices taking place during the teaching process and relevant to instructional process.

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Ineffective vs Effective PD With ESSA

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Why isn’t Professional Development Where It Needs to Be?

What are the excuses that are keeping us from reaching the goal?

Not enough funding?

For many districts, this probably isn’t the case. Consider:

• Title II funding has been available for many years.
• TNTP’s “The Mirage” report concluded schools are spending an average of $18,000 on PD annually — per teacher.
• According to Frontline Research & Learning Institute’s report on professionally related absences, 10% of all employee absences each year are for professional development. That’s a lot of money and lost instructional time devoted to professional development that is, in most cases, ineffective.

Too busy?

Maybe. But there is a direct connection between setting priorities and finding time. Is implementing sustainable job-embedded professional learning a priority in your organization?

Lack of collaboration?

Very possibly. That same report on professionally related absences found that 43% of school administrators say that interdepartmental collaboration is rare — or nonexistent — in developing more effective means for facilitating professional development. Another 38% indicated some collaboration. Only 19% of school administrators indicated that there was heavy interdepartmental collaboration towards effective professional learning.

Levels of Interdepartmental Collaboration Towards Effective Professional Learning

Not sure how to take that first step, and overwhelmed by the enormity of redesigning an entire professional learning program?

Probably. Everything we know about reaching difficult goals begins with first taking small, successful steps. Success breeds more success. Small, measurable accomplishments can help garner support from others, free up resources and even rearrange priorities.

These excuses — and probably many more — prevent the implementation of proven effective professional learning designs. They inhibit truly engaging teachers, supporting their ongoing growth and impacting student outcomes. Even worse, they may lead to frustration, ineffectiveness, teacher retention problems and even a culture of apathy.

The National Landscape for Professional Learning

Before diving into best practices, it’s important to understand what the current landscape of K-12 professional learning looks like. Why? Because understanding this foundation and working off of these building blocks will ultimately help drive a highly effective professional development program.

In a recent webinar, Frontline Education joined EdWeek and Learning Forward to discuss the current trends and national landscape of professional development in the United States.

Here are three key major takeaways as outlined by Learning Forward’s Chief Learning Officer, Paul Fleming:

1. The role of leadership is crucial:

   According to recent research from Vanderbilt University and Jason Grissom, high quality principals can contribute nearly 3 months of additional math and reading learning for students in their schools. “The principal makes it more likely the student gets the exposure to strong teaching’. This may also be driven by principals “engaging in instructionally focused interactions with teachers” and “facilitating productive collaboration and professional learning communities.”

2. Evidence-based and data driven:

   Learning Forward identified that there is an “increasing interest and responsibility to use evidence based professional learning models and strategies to support educator growth and performance.”

3. Educational equity:

   Every student should have access to high quality learning. According to Learning Forward, “the current global crisis lays bare the long-standing structural and societal inequities that are barriers to high-quality teaching and learning for all children.”

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The Do’s and Don’ts of Professional Learning

As educators seek to refine practices and improve student achievement, it is important for educational leaders to provide access to high-quality professional development that offers a timely response to individual needs. Each learning opportunity should demand thoughtful consideration to ensure it is the most appropriate option to support teacher growth.

Leaders should analyze situations, collaborate with key stakeholders, and evaluate anticipated results. Just as it is crucial for teachers in the classroom to engage in self-reflective practice, it is also important for those who organize professional development. The key question to answer: do the offerings provided truly meet the needs of teachers and staff?

The Do’s

You likely already have ESSA’s standards for professional development locked in, but there are other strategies that can support your efforts. Below are five things to enact and five things to avoid in order to ensure your district’s professional development meets the needs of your entire school community: teachers, staff, and students alike.

1. DO give teachers ‘voice and choice’ in their learning

   Professional learning shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all. Note the importance of providing learning opportunities that address teacher’s individual unique needs. Giving teachers a voice in their learning will help to promote their agency and growth.

   According to NEA, 20% of teachers “indicate that they have no input in their professional development”

2. DO align professional development to strategic goals

   Do you use the term “data-driven” to describe effective professional learning? When proposing PD activities, teachers should identify how those activities align to the district’s strategic action plan in order to receive credit for them. Then, following each activity, require teachers to submit feedback.

3. DO offer PD for ALL staff

   Teachers aren’t the only educators in a school district. Bus drivers, monitors, security officers, cafeteria workers – they all play a significant role in K12 education. Certified and non-certified staff should pursue excellence and growth through professional learning. Afterall, you never know where your next great educator will come from!

   “The most important thing about talent development is that all employees need to feel valued, they need to be respected and their voices need to matter. The more we invest in them, the more payback the school system gets, and the more productive our operations are.”

   - Mark Benigni, Meriden Public Schools

4. DO provide professional learning based on classroom observation results

   Put on your forward-thinking goggles and view teacher observations as opportunities to collaboratively work toward greater teaching practice. Observations can also help districts understand if and how well teachers are implementing new practices, whether there are barriers to implementation, and what might be getting in their way.

5. DO apply learning to practice

   The work doesn’t stop once a teacher completes their learning activity. Actively work with teachers to ensure that professional development for teachers makes a difference in their classroom.

   “I’m not evaluating you and your knowledge after having taken this course. I want to know, ‘Did this course have a change on your practice? Did it have any impact on student learning? What’s the evidence you have on the student learning piece?’”

   - Marguerite Dimgba, Director of Professional Learning, Greece Central

The Don’ts

Engaging, collaborative, and relevant learning opportunities represent the best of what professional learning can do for teacher growth. But…there’s also a flip side. Everyone decries those stay-for-two-hours-after-school-and-sit-in-a-large-room-and-passively-listen workshops. Still, most teachers are quite familiar with well-intentioned learning experiences that fail to address their needs. When it comes to implementing a professional development strategy in your district, these are the top six things to avoid:

1. DON’T ignore your teachers

   Teachers are the “boots on the ground” in your school district. More than anyone, they have their finger on the pulse of the student body, they look at the data and know the student needs in their particular building, and they know the areas where they need to grow as educators.

   Professional development is often more about connecting resources and enabling teacher-driven professional growth than about telling people what their PD should look like. And not only each teacher, but each building likely has different needs as well. The larger the district, the more important it is to take a targeted approach to professional learning.

   
   

2. DON’T forget to set quantitative goals for each building

   Consider asking every school to provide a certain number of hours of professional learning per month. This can take the form of faculty meetings, PLCs, after-school professional development and full faculty in-service days, as well as instructional coaching.

   Giving schools this responsibility can also contribute to each building’s autonomy, especially if instructional leadership teams that are comprised of teachers are tasked with planning learning opportunities that teachers want, need and request.

3. DON’T work without a map

   “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.”

   - Zig Ziglar

   Backward design isn’t a new concept for you. What are your desired outcomes? Student achievement is probably at the top of your list. And while teacher quality correlates to student outcomes and sets the stage for students to thrive, in professional learning it’s better to focus your outcomes on teachers developing specific qualities or capabilities that have been shown to be supportive of student achievement.

   Additionally, your district probably already has specific initiatives and desired outcomes. So how do you support these goals as well as offer learning that teachers need and want? One way is to slice up the pie of a teacher’s professional development to give time to each of these. If teachers are responsible for participating in 30 hours of PD each year, you might consider setting guidelines like this:

   

4. DON’T disregard short-term needs

   Anyone who is close to a teacher has seen the demands of the job. Educators are already working long hours, grading papers at night and planning lessons for the next day. Even when teachers are fully invested in professional learning opportunities, it’s critical to offer valuable learning that is applicable to their classroom immediately.

   Professional learning that’s not relevant to what teachers face here/now/tomorrow/this week? That can simply be overwhelming.

5. DON’T neglect to track impact

   It’s vital to make it simple for teachers to craft their own professional learning plans to help them meet their defined goals and address their needs. Online professional learning management systems can provide catalogs of filtered professional learning opportunities, allow teachers to give feedback on what they’ve learned, and reflect on their learning and craft action plans. Districts can use all of this information to help determine what professional learning opportunities to offer in the future, and tailor already in-progress learning experiences to maximize learning.

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How to Model a Professional Learning Program

There are many ways districts choose to offer professional learning, and in no way is this list comprehensive. But as technology continues to advance the ways in which it’s possible to learn, as well as to bring people togetherto learn, here are a few different models, both traditional and not-so-traditional.

Ideas for Getting Started: Teachers and Non-Certified Staff

Whatever model you end up implementing in your district (or maybe it’s a mix of all three!), here are some additional ideas to supplement your efforts.

Ideas for varied sessions:

Job Shadowing

Study Group

Workshops

In-class Observation

Mentor Sessions

Administrative Support

Inquiry Teams

Reflective Conversations

Instructional Coaching

Ideas for non-certified employees:

Mentoring

Many schools have found that mentoring programs for new or struggling teachers can reduce turnover. So why not create a mentoring program for non-certified employees? A mentor can provide individualized support, encourage learning, and improve performance.

Learning Lunches

Learning lunches are an opportunity to sit down with your classified staff and go over training topics that can be covered in a relatively short amount of time. The face-to-face contact is great for discussions and questions and eating as a group can foster a sense of community

Measuring the Effectiveness of Your PD Program

With best practices and creative ideas in your pocket, the next step to implementing a comprehensive, individualized learning program is to think about how you’re going to measure the effectiveness of each standard. The two most important aspects of measuring standards are identifying key metrics and benchmarking those metrics to guarantee continuous growth and improvement within your organization. Let’s take a look!

Key Metrics

Keep in mind, no matter what set of metrics your district uses, it’s important to ensure they come from easily-accessible data that’s available in your professional learning management system. Afterall, you don’t want to measure something that takes a massive amount of time, resources, or effort to tell if your PD is on track or off track.

Here are some ideas for key metrics rooted in data to measure your program’s effectiveness on staff learning and student achievement:

Sustained

Activity enrollments consisting of more than 3 meetings

Intensive

Average length of PD (in hours)

Collaborative

Enrollment in an activity with a collaborative format

Job-embedded

Activities offered within the school system

Data-driven

Activities offered aligned to a data-driven format

Classroom-focused

Activities aligned with classroom-focused InTASC standards

Benchmarking your data

What you can you do with these metrics to measure effectiveness? Check out these visual graphics below to help determine not only where you are today with your professional learning program, but to also help you set a goal for where you want to be moving forward. Whatever the case, it’s critical to measure your district’s trends over time and to benchmark your district’s results against national results.

And once you’ve input metrics, your goal, and the national benchmark, you will be on track toward effectively measuring your district’s professional development progress:

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Designing High-Quality Professional Development Programs

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School Systems That Have Successfully Implemented PL Plans

Providing effective professional learning isn't easy. There's a reason so many educators hold graduate-level degrees. Teaching and learning are as complex as they are rewarding. And the stakes are never higher than when it comes to supporting and promoting teachers as they continually stretch toward excellence.

Every leader in K-12 wants students to have the best teachers possible (of course!). It’s why so many school systems place such an emphasis on professional learning, on growth-focused evaluations, on promoting coaching and peer collaboration. But supporting teacher growth at scale isn’t easy. Every school is different, and every teacher has his or her own areas of strength and areas for growth. States have divergent requirements for professional learning and teacher evaluations.

Here are four districts that display impressive innovation in professional learning, and what their Directors of Professional Learning have to say about their respective programs:

Jenks Public Schools: Evaluating New PD Opportunities

Jenks, OK | Mary Katherine Moeller, Director of Professional Development

Mary Kathryn and the rest of the team at Jenks Public Schools work hard to be intentional when introducing new initiatives. They don’t shy away from taking risksand exploring innovation — but they want to be wise about it.

“That’s really been our process... because our teachers are very busy, and they’re pulled in lots of directions. We want to be really intentional before we introduce something new or ask them to make a shift or a change.”

Greece Central School Disctrict: Aligning PD to Strategic Goals

Greece, NY | Marguerite Dimgba, Director of Professional Learning

The work doesn’t stop once a teacher completes a learning activity. Greece Central actively works with teachers to ensure that professional development for teachers makes a difference in the classroom.

“I’m not evaluating you and your knowledge after having taken this course. I want to know, ‘Did this course have a change on your practice? Did it have any impact on student learning? What’s the evidence you have on the student learning piece?’ ... That sort of changed our thinking in terms of evaluating professional learning, so that’s really been a positive.”

Virginia Beach City Public Schools: Balancing Personal, District, and Building Goals

Virginia Beach, VA | Janene Gorham, Ed.D., Director of Teacher Leading & Learning

Virginia Beach has introduced a competency-based model of professional development. This allows teachers to move at their own pace and helps increase teacher buy-in as they can choose learning opportunities to develop the skills they need.

“We’ve created a flexible system that allows [teachers] to go about setting their learning goals and acquire those hours in a variety of way... The teacher obviously has his or her own interests and priorities..”

Council Rock School District: Providing Flexible, Digital Programs

Bucks County, PA | Ann Bell, Director of Professional Growth

Council Rock provides professional learning that is heavily focused on collaboration, reflection, and accessibility. With self-paced courses, teachers can access their PD programs at different times.

“We can provide professional learning opportunities which can be addresses in more of an on-demand style for our teachers who don’t have the time to be out of the classroom or have attend after school events.”

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Check out the full spotlight on Council Rock School District for more insight and ideas on creating a culture of growth

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Effective Professional Development Tools

Now that you have the right strategies and best practices for implementing an individualized, comprehensive professional development program, check out these three different types of professional learning tools to support your organization’s efforts: 

Professional Learning Management

Provide personalized professional learning for teachers

• Offer a catalog of goal-aligned learning opportunities Provide relevant learning experiences for all teachers and employees with online/virtual courses, in-district workshops, out-of-district events, conferences and more.
• Use evaluation results to drive learning, and track its impact on the classroom Identify areas where teachers need additional support to provide relevant learning opportunities and use impact forms to assess classroom outcomes.
• Engage your employees in the learning process Enable employees to take an active role in their professional growth by setting up individual professional development plans and making activity proposals.

Employee Evaluation Management

Conduct growth-focused evaluations for teachers

• Observe and provide feedback Impact student outcomes through a collaborative observation process and actionable feedback.
• Evaluate all employees – not just teachers Complete evaluations for all district employees: teachers, counselors, paraprofessionals, administrators, custodians, cafeteria staff, bus drivers, coaches, office staff, and more.
• Get detailed reports aligned to your district’s rubric Identify areas of strength and challenge according to any rubric you use, license permitting.

Learning & Collaboration Resources

Equip staff to become masters of their craft

• Create interactive online learning experiences for your staff Design learning opportunities to engage your staff in a virtual world or as part of a blended approach by leveraging collaboration and assessment-building tools, micro-credentials, courses, videos, other resources.
• Provide educators space to collaborate and grow Complete evaluations for all district employees: teachers, counselors, paraprofessionals, administrators, custodians, cafeteria staff, bus drivers, coaches, office staff, and more.
• Enable self-directed learning and growth Provide educators and staff with a diverse array of professional development opportunities to address their individual needs and interests.

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Looking Ahead to Next Year: 5 Tips for Evaluating Your PD Program

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10 Questions to Ask Potential Vendors

When looking for potential professional growth tools with vendors, keep in mind… not all of them are created equal. Here are 10 questions to ask vendors about their professional management software:

Want a printable version of this buyer’s guide? Download here

Your Path to Individualized, Comprehensive PD

Ready to better support continuous educator improvement with individualized professional learning? Frontline Professional Growth can help!

Over 2,000 districts use Frontline Professional Growth to streamline evaluations and customize professional learning for teachers.

We partner with leaders in teacher development like Charlotte Danielson and James Strongeto support effective teaching for better student outcomes.

Our solutions are designed to help districts meet the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) mandate to provide professional development that is sustained, intensive, job-embedded, collaborative, data-driven and classroom-focused

Support great teaching for student success