The Alliance for Excellent Education is hosting a number of virtual events tomorrow as part of Digital Learning Day. Some 37 states, 10,000 teachers, and more than 1.5 million students will participate in Digital Learning Day, a national awareness campaign spearheaded by the Alliance and celebrating teachers, principals, and other leaders who use technology in innovative ways to help students achieve.

While a number of states will be conducting their own activities in association with Digital Learning Day, the national schedule consists of a series of live webcasts and live chats, and a live National Town Hall featuring FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. The town hall event will profile teachers that effectively use technology to deliver instruction, and focus on education innovation projects happening across the country. (Note: this event requires pre-registration.)

We will be paying particular attention to the 11:30 a.m. (EST) webcast, "Effective Teaching and Professional Learning Opportunities," which includes a discussion of technology's role in providing ongoing, job-embedded professional learning for educators. We'll report out on our takeaways from this session later in the week.

You can see a complete schedule of the national events here.

You can also check out events that are going on in your state as part of Digital Learning Day here.

Tom Manning
Associate Director of E-Learning, Learning Forward

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The Learning First Alliance has posted a number of education organizations' responses to last week's State of the Union address. As Anne O'Brien of LFA notes in her blog post, education was not one of the main focuses of President Obama's remarks (SOTU video here; speech text here), save for a call to states to keep students in school and this comment about the importance of good teachers:

"Teachers matter. So instead of bashing them, or defending the status quo, let's offer schools a deal. Give them the resources to keep good teachers on the job, and reward the best ones. And in return, grant schools flexibility: to teach with creativity and passion; to stop teaching to the test; and to replace teachers who just aren't helping kids learn. That's a bargain worth making."

The roundup of comments from the education community, including analysis from the NEA, AFT, National School Boards Association and others, is worth a read.

To these analyses we would simply add that Learning Forward is pleased the president keeps emphasizing the need to ensure that all teachers get the support they need to be successful. Great teachers do need to be rewarded, and effective professional learning is the most valuable tool we have to ensure that all teachers are effective and all students experience great teaching. We remain committed to assisting the Department of Education as it seeks new ways to ensure that all educators engage in effective professional learning every day so every student achieves.

Stephanie Hirsh
Executive Director, Learning Forward

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The Center for Education Policy has released the second report in its series exploring the state of implementation of the new Common Core State Standards.

The report, published yesterday, is based on a survey of 35 state education agencies that was designed to get updated information on state strategies, policies and challenges in the second year of transition to the CCSS.

The survey found that most states that have adopted the CCSS are taking actions to help teachers master them. More specifically, a majority of states report they are developing materials to help teachers master the CCSS (34 states) and almost as many (33) are conducting statewide professional development initiatives.

Nine states are projecting full implementation of the standards by 2013-14; 16 states in 2014-15; and one by 2015-16.

My interactions with educators in the field often centers on their concern that while teachers are interested in learning more about the standards, they are unwilling to adopt them fully as long as the current assessments are in place. Teachers are seeking assurance that if they transition fully to the new standards they will not be penalized on current assessments. They also want assurance of absolute alignment between CCSS and the new assessments. When these issues can be satisfactorily addressed, teachers will take the steps necessary for deep implementation.

I understand their position. Education leaders must strike the right balance between supporting transition to the new standards and leaving in place what is necessary for current accountability systems. This requires careful curricular and instructional planning guides. Professional learning can be designed and staged to support clear transitions in instruction, curriculum, and new assessments. Of course, this also means that states may face plans that call for longer and larger commitments to professional learning.

Several states already recognize this dilemma. According to the report, "Twenty-one survey states said that finding adequate resources to fully implement the standards would be a major challenge." Other challenges cited include providing sufficient professional development, aligning the content of teacher preparation programs with the CCSS, and developing CCSS-aligned educator evaluation systems for teachers and principals.

Once again, these challenges should not serve as deterrents; rather they are opportunities to recognize what is essential to ensure that we achieve deep implementation that transforms the ways teachers teach and students learn. Highly effective and sustained professional learning is necessary to achieve this outcome.

Stephanie Hirsh
Executive Director, Learning Forward

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Over the past decade, amazing research has been conducted in the area of school leadership. With the wealth of information out there, I often wish someone would take the best of it and put it into simple terms, describing exactly what it is that great principals do to significantly improve teaching and learning. The Wallace Foundation's recent Perspective, The School Principal as Leader: Guiding Schools to Better Teaching and Learning, is a huge step forward in granting my wish.

The report tells us that the most successful principals perform five key functions well:

1. Shaping a vision of academic success for all students
2. Creating a climate hospitable to education
3. Cultivating leadership in others
4. Improving instruction
5. Managing people, data, and processes to foster school improvement

What makes the Wallace Perspective so significant is the fact that it's informed by both research and practice. The foundation's more than 70 research reports and other publications covering school leadership provide the research based for the report's key ideas. Heavy hitters like The University of Toronto's and University of Minnesota's 2010 report Learning From Leadership: Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning and Rand's 2009 report Improving School Leadership: The Promise of Cohesive Leadership Systems were culled and the ideas repurposed for this Perspective. The Wallace Foundation's 10+ years of active engagement with states and school districts across the country enabled the authors to have access to the very practical forces that impact school leadership. The bottom line: We all have a lot to learn from this commentary.

After breaking the five key functions down into very practitioner-friendly language, the authors did something Learning Forward members have come to expect from our publications: provide real-world examples. We are introduced to Dewey Hensley, principal of the J. B. Atkinson Academy for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in Louisville, Kentucky. During Hensley first week at Atkinson Academy, he drew a picture of a school on poster board and asked his faculty to annotate it. He asked his school team to create a perfect vision of a school, and then they all worked together to get there. Hensley was living the first key function: shaping a vision of academic success for all students. His story is woven throughout the remaining four functions outlined in the report.

The professional learning implications of this Wallace Perspective are many. For those whose work in any way involves developing school leaders, this resource will prove extremely useful. The Perspective is also an excellent resource for those already "sitting in the chair," giving those school leaders a handy tool to inform potential target areas for professional growth. The same is true for assistant principals and teacher leaders who aspire to be principals and are looking to practice their leadership skills.

Truth be told, I wish someone had handed this Perspective to me as I considered the principalship.

Frederick Brown
Director of Strategy and Development, Learning Forward

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Research consistently affirms the importance of two factors in producing the best results for students: quality of teaching and leadership.

Two foundations have stepped up to provide educators with a deeper understanding of findings from research and their application in schools. The 10-year investment in school leadership by The Wallace Foundation has led to the revision of leadership standards, development of leadership frameworks, validation of leader evaluation tools, and guidance for the development of future leaders. District staff members concerned about poor leadership or inadequate support can turn to the foundation's research for guidance.

Equally important is the emergence of research on what constitutes effective teaching. While many independent efforts have been under way for years, the intensive focus of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on what constitutes effective teaching has shone a spotlight on the issue. The foundation's website includes research, tools, and resources for building systems that lead to more effective teaching.

Translating these important findings into successful outcomes for students and educators, however, hinges on the success of state, provincial, and school district systems of professional learning. Professional learning is the only process educators have for systematically moving research findings into practice. School systems need commitment, leadership, resources, designs, and data -- in other words, attention to the Standards for Professional Learning.

Everyone has an important role to play in moving research into practice.

Policymakers must govern and regulate with expectation and support for continuous improvement as key to achieving goals. Policymakers must support the development of systems of professional learning that ensure educators understand the standards by which their performance will be assessed and the means they can access to support continuous growth.

District office staff must build systems of professional learning that are focused on supporting all students and staff members to achieve performance outcomes. District leaders do this by adopting a vision for professional learning that builds collective responsibility, supports school-focused improvement, and provides skilled facilitation for ongoing team-based learning and problem solving, using the Standards for Professional Learning to guide the work.

Principals and teachers must focus on data to determine the desired results for all students and the learning and support needed to ensure their success. Principals and teachers must organize as learning communities and assume responsibilities for the success of all students and educators; commit to ongoing learning and see that best practices spread from classroom to classroom and school to school; and document the impact of professional learning so that others understand why continued support and advocacy is essential.

Technical assistance providers must listen to their education partners to understand the help they seek in meeting student and educator needs. When designing professional learning, put the standards front and center so partners understand the body of research on which the work is based. Providers have the opportunity to be advocates for standards-based professional learning and help educators get it right, and can document results and share findings so that more schools and school systems understand professional learning's importance and support increases for best practices.

Let's get busy with the challenges at hand. We have valuable new tools to address them.

Stephanie Hirsh
Eecutive Director, Learning Forward

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I long ago stopped making New Year's resolutions. Instead, I have one desire for myself that never changes, even as one year glides almost unnoticeably into the next.

My daily and lifelong commitment is to be where I should be, doing what I should be doing, when I should be doing it. That's it. This pledge works for me both in my personal and professional lives. What I've learned is, if I pay attention to those three simple but difficult directives, I'll accomplish much more than by making a hollow resolution that I'd likely break in a matter of days.

As my thoughts turned to the idea of New Year resolutions, I couldn't help but imagine the resolutions being made by teachers and principals as they look toward the rapidly looming end of the school year. Particularly, I can guess that the members of the Learning School Alliance are probably re-visiting their professional learning plans. No doubt, many are making vows to focus on those plans and get serious about accomplishing what they promised to do.

What I hope the LSA teams will do, though, is keep it simple. I hope they will resolve to avoid making grandiose plans and promises that they can't or won't deliver. I hope they are seriously considering where they should be, what they should be doing, and when they should be doing it as it relates to creating and sustaining professional learning teams that put student learning first.

Maybe that's a commitment we all should be making in 2012.

Carol Francois
Director of Learning, Learning Forward

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Early in the process of developing the revised Standards for Professional Learning, the decision was made to name the new document Standards for Professional Development. Within the last decade, the term professional development has become more prevalent both in the research and popular literature as a replacement for the term staff development, or its ancestor, inservice education. The term professional development seemed appropriate since research focused on the continuous development of teachers and principals, with teachers being the primary subjects of research.

Late in the revision process, the Standards Revision Task Force considered using the term professional learning rather than professional development in the name. Task force members overwhelmingly agreed to make this change.

The term professional development tends to connote only the formal events in which people gather to learn. The term also conveys more about the design, logistics, and materials needed for learning than the outcomes of the learning for both educators and their students.

In contrast, the term professional learning emphasizes that learning is a process that continues over time, extends into practice, and expects results for students.
While this distinction may appear arbitrary for some, the concepts embedded in the meaning of professional learning are fundamental to shaping practice and perception. Changing the name from development to learning holds tremendous promise for engaging educators in a process that is a hallmark of a profession, continuous education and improvement of practice.

Changing the name might contribute to changing both the public's and educators' perception of educator development from one that is a passive process, removed from the daily work in schools, disconnected from student and educator standards, designed by those outside of schools, and done at the expense of students' opportunity to learn. Professional learning connotes a new understanding of this core function within education. Professional learning is continuous improvement that occurs daily in schools. It is facilitated and designed by educators themselves and supported by external assistance providers when necessary. It focuses on educators' everyday work, strengthening their capacity, and increasing student results. It occurs as a part of the normal workday when students are in school. It engages educators as active learners in a process that continues over time. It weaves together acquisition of knowledge, development of skills, critique of, reflection on, and refinement of practice, and analysis of dispositions. It is vital to the success of students.

The practice of continuous learning is essential for any improvement effort. Without learning, little change is possible. Every major education initiative, past, present, or future, depends on the capacity of educators to implement it fully and with fidelity. Professional learning is the only viable, efficient, and logical process for building the capacity of educators working in schools today. The Standards for Professional Learning describe the research-based attributes of professional learning essential to transforming schools for student success.

Joellen Killion
Senior Advisor, Learning Forward

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Last month at Learning Forward's 2011 Annual Conference, René Islas, Hayes Mizell and I facilitated a session on engaging business and thought leaders. Our attendees had some great ideas for building relationships with community members to advance professional learning goals.

In preparing for the session, I remembered an article Hayes wrote for JSD about a year ago, where he gave very concrete strategies for engaging thought leaders. In "Thought leaders: Who they are, why they matter, and how to reach them," he defined thought leaders as those whose ideas influence the ideas and actions of others.

After reflecting on this article and on the discussion from our conference session, I've crafted a list of considerations for communicating with those beyond our field, based on what Hayes wrote and the insights of our participants.

Define your goal. The folks in our session were careful about what they hoped to achieve with potential new partners. They knew that educators approaching businesses might immediately be perceived as having their hands out, asking for money. While financial support is often part of what educators are seeking, the relationship between educators and community members can encompass so much more. For example, a respected business leader's willingness to advocate for effective professional learning is extremely valuable and can have lasting impact.

Know your listener. Community members may have a limited understanding of, or even a negative perception of, professional learning. Think about what their entry point to this conversation might be. Do they value on-the-job learning for themselves and the employees in their businesses, even in lean economic times? Is their entry point to professional learning through the future employees they hope to hire, and therefore the educators those future employees need today?

Tell a good story. While the research on the teacher's role in a student's education experience is foundational, on its own, that information may not motivate listeners to embrace professional learning as a cause. Consider how the story of effective professional learning best comes to life with those you approach. Is it through examples that include local educators and students? Is it news about high-achieving schools in other locations - even other countries? And remember, telling a story doesn't mean you don't need data. Results are always compelling.

Be consistent - and persistent. Meaningful relationships happen over time, so one phone call, one visit, one elevator conversation isn't enough. Plan to speak with your desired allies repeatedly, in different venues and with ever-deepening but consistent messages. Scaffold the information you share, just as you do with other learners.

Make a commitment, get a commitment. Because your relationship will continue over time, plan your next steps. Perhaps you will need to find information for your new partner, or schedule a school visit. At the same time, you'll ask for a commitment; perhaps your new ally will agree to a next discussion with you or will invite you to a board meeting or community event.

Reaching out beyond our circle of professional learning believers will be an important step to achieving the Standards for Professional Learning. Let's be as intentional with this step as we are in our work with educators and students.

Tracy Crow
Director of Publications, Learning Forward

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I love so many things about this time of year, but high on the list is attending holiday parties where I have an opportunity to spend time with family, friends, and new acquaintances. During these gatherings, the dialogue inevitably shifts to jobs and careers, and someone new finds out I'm an educator. While these conversations typically begin with tales of favorite teachers or most memorable moments from elementary school, the discourse eventually shifts to explanations of everything that's wrong with our public education system and how easily these problems could be fixed.

While in years past I would engage in lengthy debates about these issues, my increasing wisdom has taught me two things. First, as an educator, I am the face of public education to all those who finally have the chance to tell the system what's wrong. Second, anyone who has ever been in a school at any point in their life (which is pretty much everyone) has the answer for what it takes to improve teaching and learning.

My holiday advisors would have me believe teachers earn too much, don't do enough, and should be much more strict. These same advisors often aren't sure what to think about principals. As children, many only saw their principal when they were sent to the office or at their graduations. Parents, they explain, don't care about their children, and children don't care at all about their own learning.

From this educator's perspective, the reality is quite different. Teaching and learning is harder today than it has ever been. There is so much more our children need to know and be able to do in order to be successful in our ever changing and interconnected world. The jobs of teachers and principals have never been more complex. School and school system budgets are decreasing at alarming rates, while the needs are increasing exponentially. Children have more distractions now than at any point in history. Parents, like the rest of us, are busy as ever, and those who had negative educational experiences during their childhoods are understandably reluctant to waltz into a school for what they feel will be a repeat performance.

Despite all of these very real challenges, there are many schools creating some amazing learning environments for our children. While their stories are often untold, their accomplishments are epic. So I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have made it your mission in life to support our children's learning. You do amazing work and you overcome incredible obstacles! And if you ever find yourself cornered at a holiday party surrounded by "advisors," try asking them this question I've used a few times:

"Have you ever tried threading a needle with a rope while jumping out of a plane blindfolded with one hand tied behind your back...in the rain?"

If you're able to pull that off, then maybe...just maybe...you have what it takes to teach.

Happy holidays, fellow educators, and again, thanks for all you do on behalf of our children!

Frederick Brown
Director of Strategy and Development, Learning Forward

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There is no argument that quality teaching makes a difference in student learning. Teacher Professional Learning in the United States: Case Studies of State Policies and Strategies, the third report in Learning Forward's study on the state of professional learning in the United States, notes that in the last decade, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners have come to the same conclusion: Teacher effectiveness is a key factor in improving academic outcomes for students.

Teachers have often told me they know which students come from a particular teacher's class because they are so well-prepared. They also whisper to me that I should check out another teacher's class scores because year after year his students are falling behind.

Many readers agree that professional learning is the single most important strategy for extending and refining their knowledge, skills, dispositions, and practices. It is troubling that in many ongoing discussions, professional learning is viewed as remediation.

Denver Public Schools seems to understand that educator effectiveness is more than a recipe. Its new system "is an opportunity to elevate the teaching profession," says Tracy Dorland, executive director for educator effectiveness. "...This is about thinking of the profession differently, in a way that respects teaching as a complicated craft, requiring teacher leadership, strong collaboration with colleagues, reflection about practice, and constant efforts to improve instruction for the students whose lives we impact every day." I hope more and more systems will come to share this perspective.

Teachers need many skills for their complex profession. It is through learning -- that is, experimentation, making mistakes, reflecting with colleagues, embracing new learning opportunities, getting feedback, reading books -- that the members of any profession, and particularly educators, become most effective.

Mark Diaz
Past president, Learning Forward

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