Professional Learning for Busy Educators

Here at Getting Smart, we believe school visits are the best form of professional learning. Based on a couple thousand school visits, and with help from colleagues and readers, we’ve compiled a list of elementary and middle schools that can give educators a better sense of what’s possible. This list includes schools that achieve extraordinary results for underserved communities, create powerful learning experiences, and/or have innovative school models.

While many educators now recognize that “noncognitive” factors that affect how a student thinks about his or her abilities are important to learning academic content, there’s little consensus about how teachers can help build those qualities. Some districts are trying to include noncognitive factors in measures of school effectiveness, while other schools focus on certain character qualities as part of their mission.

Educators are trying to figure out how to motivate students to work hard in school and to help them see the rewards for that hard work as a real possibility. But that work is particularly challenging as the public school population becomes increasingly low income and children often come to school having experienced chronic stress or trauma in their home lives that significantly impact their ability to regulate emotions, focus, and deescalate situations.

Teaching through projects, interrogating the value of grades, attempting to make learning more meaningful and connected to young people’s lives and interests, thoughtful ways of using technology to amplify and share student work. These are just some of the ways teaching and learning are changing. But moving to these kinds of learning environments is a big shift for many teachers, schools, and districts; it’s hard to sustain change once the shiny newness wears off. That’s when people tend to slip back into old habits, relying on what they know best. The transformation requires a leader who understands how to manage the change process.

“Sustained modes of change can be incredibly meaningful and yield for your community in huge ways, but you have to be incredibly intentional in order to make space for these things to happen,” said Diana Laufenberg at an EduCon 2018 session about how to lead through change. Laufenberg is the executive director of Inquiry Schools, a nonprofit working with schools around the country to make these shifts. She has come to the conclusion that there are five pillars to sustaining change: permission, support, community engagement, accountability and staying the course.