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The major challenge with time is finding it. Current school-day schedules and school-year calendars are leaner than ever because of budget reductions. States and districts have implemented furlough days to balance lean-and-mean budgets that show no sign of improving. Few are willing to take the leap toward reducing instructional time to improve learning because of the illogical nature of that proposition. Yet across the nation and around the globe, instances exist where increasing time for educator collaborative professional learning that incorporates developing and analyzing assessment data, instructional planning, designing and implementing interventions, giving and receiving feedback, and reflecting on practice has positively influenced student achievement. The logic is simple: Better instruction leads to better learning. This article offers the "Learning Forward" workbook to guide districts and schools as they develop, vet, and implement recommendations for increasing collaborative learning time for educators, and then evaluate the effectiveness of the change.

Teacher coaching is a powerful form of professional learning that improves teaching practices and student achievement, yet little is known about the specific aspects of coaching programs that are more effective. Researchers used a blocked randomized experiment to study the effects of one-to-one coaching on teacher practice. When pooled across all teachers in both cohorts, there is no effect of coaching on teacher practice, yet considerable variability exists between the cohorts. Changes in program design that occurred between the two cohorts provided researchers an opportunity to study how differences in program features influence positive effects in the first cohort on teacher practice and the absence of effects in the second cohort.

As the call for professional learning that incorporates ongoing feedback and support increases and resources to address that need decline, more states, districts, schools, and individuals are turning to technology. Technology creates significant opportunities for more focused professional learning, especially when it is effectively integrated into a comprehensive system for professional learning. While technology can enhance professional learning, how educators use it will determine the degree to which it can influence educator practice and results for students. As individuals, schools, districts, and states strive to meet the demand for professional learning generated by Common Core standards and other emerging initiatives in education, effective use of technology requires careful consideration and planning.

Implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS), now adopted in a large majority of states, requires significant support. To realize the potential of these new college- and career-ready standards, states must focus significant attention on how to prepare educators for implementation. Key among the strategies is high-quality, sustained professional learning that moves educators from awareness and understanding to implementing, analyzing, and revising instruction, assessment, and leadership practices. Any shortcut in professional learning is likely to minimize the potential of the standards and undermine students' opportunity to be college- and career-ready at the end of high school. State boards of education have both the responsibility and authority to influence the quality and results of professional learning as a significant strategy to ensure implementation of reform efforts. To this end, boards should consider the following actions: (1) Define, implement, and monitor effective professional learning; (2) Build alignment and coherence between professional learning and the state's priorities and goals for the Common Core State Standards; (3) Establish adequate of resources for professional learning that incorporate strategic use of local, regional, state, and other public and private resources to ensure equitable access to, effectiveness of, and results from professional learning; (4) Consider flexibility in existing rules and added support for local schools and districts with varying needs; and (5) Build statewide stakeholder and public support for the role of professional learning in achieving education reform. State boards of education must acknowledge and act to the extent of their responsibility and authority to ensure that all educators experience effective professional learning to achieve the promise and potential of Common Core State Standards to prepare all students for college and careers. (Contains 4 endnotes.)

What percentage of their budgets should schools and districts invest in professional learning? To answer that question, schools and districts must first know how much they are spending on professional learning and be able to connect that spending to student achievement. Knowing what is invested in professional learning requires understanding the multiple sources of funding for professional learning, how those funds are dispersed, how the funds are coded, and who manages the expenditures. Understanding what is invested in professional learning requires consensus on what constitutes an expense, consistency in coding expenditures, and sophisticated accounting systems that can aggregate and analyze expense categories across multiple income areas by program, school, or income source. Adequate accounting systems increase districts' and schools' ability to analyze, prioritize, coordinate, and monitor resources for professional learning. This article presents a list of principles that will guide districts and schools in allocating and assessing resources in professional learning. For many districts and schools, these principles require a shift from how they have traditionally supported professional learning to emphasize structures and policies that lead to practices linking educator learning to student learning. The bottom line is that truly focusing professional development requires administrators to figure out where their dollars are spent, whether those patterns align to strategic goals for teacher improvement, and, if not, institute changes to the spending.

Student success depends on effective teaching--not just occasionally, but every day in every classroom and school. Effective teaching impacts students' academic, physical, social-emotional, and behavioral well-being. Generating a vision, developing an instructional framework, and delineating student learning outcomes by themselves are insufficient to produce effective teaching. Effective teaching requires not only explicit performance standards for educators but also processes for improving and assessing effective practice. Performance standards for teachers define instructional expectations and inform the individual improvement and criteria for measuring effectiveness. Effective teaching is possible in every classroom by ensuring every educator experiences substantive professional learning within a culture of collaboration and shared accountability. Professional learning is the only strategy in school systems that moves the vision, instructional framework, standards for students, and standards for educators into action. Common attributes of effective schools are discussed.

Learning Forward introduces new Standards for Professional Learning. This is the third iteration of standards outlining the characteristics of professional learning that lead to effective teaching practices, supportive leadership, and improved student results. The standards are not a prescription for how education leaders and public officials should address all challenges related to improving the performance of educators and students. Instead, the standards focus on one critical issue: professional learning. These standards call for a new form of educator learning. The decision to call these Standards for Professional Learning rather than Standards for Professional Development signals the importance of educators taking an active role in their continuous improvement and places emphasis on the learning. By making learning the focus, those who are responsible for professional learning will concentrate their efforts on assuring that learning for educators leads to learning for students.

Policy influences practice. Policy has the capacity to strengthen practice by demanding accountability for both process and results through clear expectations as well as deliberate sanctions for failure to meet those expectations. Policies can also provide resources to meet expectations. In this article, the authors discuss how several national organizations explore policy pathways to professional learning.

The authors' experiences with improvement efforts, particularly those which failed to be fully implemented, cause them to wonder if other approaches to improvement will increase their potential for success. They conclude that principles--powerful beliefs that underlie actions--are essential to sustained system and school improvement. Over the years, they have identified principles consistent with the most effective improvement efforts associated with professional learning that increases impact on educators and students. As a result, they offer a set of principles for those who want to improve professional learning and increase its effect on educators and adults. They believe that these eight principles will lead to more effective, principle-driven professional learning focused on shared goals of improved leading, teaching, and student learning.

In this article, the authors argue that district and school leaders continue to struggle with the apparent dichotomy between "traditional" and "reform-oriented professional development," especially with increased presence of professional learning communities in schools and their use in replacing other forms of professional development. Traditional professional development, most practitioners agree, is an expedient way to build the fundamental knowledge and skills associated with innovations in curriculum and instruction. Reform-oriented professional development, however, increases implementation and transformation of practice, researchers are finding. Implementation in classrooms is what impacts student learning. The authors propose that practitioners can negotiate the dichotomy between traditional and reform-oriented professional learning through the use of the macro-learning and micro-learning continuum. Macro learning experiences are those that occur at the broad level. They involve explicit occurrences of cognitive learning; staff engages in these experiences to acquire knowledge and skills. Macro learning deepens content and pedagogical knowledge and skill but does not guarantee that learning is transferred to practice. Teachers engage in micro learning as they apply their new knowledge and skills gained through macro learning, thus transferring learning to practice. The authors conclude that the artful weaving of macro and micro learning produces the greatest benefits for students. As school staffs continue to refine the implementation of professional learning communities, it is essential that they step back to determine if their practice incorporates sufficient macro and micro learning to produce the changes they intend--for both adults and students.

Describes life coaching for principals and superintendents of high-poverty schools, which offers individualized, long-term support that enables them to become clearer about their goals and actions plans for achieving them and to lead more balanced, healthy lives so they can sustain their work over many years. The positive link between life coaching and greater student achievement is noted. (SM)

The study reviewed in this article provides empirical evidence that effective professional development has a positive and significant impact on instructional practices, not only for those who directly experience professional development, but also for colleagues who receive help and support from those who have participated directly and thus gained expertise. It examined the knowledge, flow, and spillover effects of teachers' professional development on their peers' instructional practices in writing across multiple disciplines. The current study used data from three school years, 2007-10, which were part of a larger longitudinal evaluation study of the National Writing Project's school partnership. The benefits of teacher collaboration within and across schools are well-known. This study provides empirical evidence about the benefits of teacher interaction as a mechanism to diffuse the effects of professional development (the term used throughout this study) to improve instructional practices.

The professional development of trainers requires an understanding of the developmental stages of adults. As with other adults, trainers may progress through stages of development. Staff developers must align the type of support given with the current stage of the trainer's development and move the learner to the next stage. (JD)

Partners in Education (PIE) is a cooperative program, designed to enhance teacher growth and development, between the University of Colorado (Boulder) and three school districts. This article describes the essential components and key people in the partnership and discusses benefits to the schools, teachers, school districts, and university. (IAH)

Identifies areas of knowledge principals need to guide staff development, focusing on qualities of principal-staff developers, and the principalship (programs to help train staff developers, and delegation of staff development roles). Recommendations include establishing district staff development programs and intervention for principals having problems transitioning to staff development. (SM)

This article deals with the current situation of educational assistants now being required by the No Child Left Behind Act to have at least two years of higher education or an associates degree, or to meet rigorous quality standards and demonstrate academic skills and knowledge. In this article, the author presents views from a superintendent, teacher and a personnel director. A superintendent writes that their paraprofessionals must be highly trained to serve as instructional assistants. A teacher writes about having an instructional assistant who understands the teaching and learning process, and knows how to make the right decisions. A personnel director writes about the need for instructional assistants to receive the best training without having to pay an exorbitant amount of money from their own pockets. Aside from these, the author discusses the problem that arises from a new superintendent named Bill Stewart.