In education systems around the world, planners and policymakers are calling for more attention to whole-system improvement. To best address teaching and learning outcomes, teachers and head teachers need whole-system support to build professionalism and improve their practice. The middle tier of education systems, composed of professionals…

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which students develop such interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies as teamwork, social awareness, self-regulation, and emotional awareness. Although schools in the United States have always addressed these competencies, in recent years, the availability of resources to address SEL…

Talented leaders are essential to building and sustaining successful organizations. This is especially true for schools, where principal leadership plays a major role in fostering student success. Research shows that principals are a significant school-level factor affecting student achievement, second only to classroom teachers. Like other types…

This report presents a multi-case qualitative research study on how to support teacher professional learning and development of their digital competence, through a self-reflection process using SELFIEforTEACHERS (SfT). The study investigated how SfT can be used in different settings and what factors, enablers and barriers affect its effective…

This study examines the current challenges and dynamics surrounding the professional development (PD) needs of teachers and principals in public secondary schools in Abia State, Nigeria. Employing a quantitative research methodology, this investigation encompasses a populace comprising public secondary school principals and teachers in Abia State,…

Highly effective teachers and school leaders are of utmost importance to improve student achievement and ensure the success of the education system. Unfortunately, students in underserved schools are not provided equitable access to effective teachers and leaders. For this reason, many states and districts have implemented evidence-based talent…

This report presents school leadership development policies and practices across all 50 states and select U.S. territories. Researchers Bobbi Newman, Jonathan Supovitz, and Greg Collins from the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE), in collaboration with National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) staff, interviewed…

This paper summarizes research on the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Leadership Learning Community (ELLC) and the University Principal Preparation Program (UPPI). The Wallace Foundation created these efforts and supported them financially to test ideas for improving the work of principals and enhancing the supports they receive on the job.…

California has a notable history of investing in educational leaders' professional learning. In 1983, the state launched the California School Leadership Academy (CSLA), which it funded until the academy was discontinued due to statewide budget cuts in 2003. Research showed that CSLA was a source of high-quality professional development. In 2019,…

In the United States, student social-emotional well-being has become a priority because of concerning mental health and well-being outcomes for adolescent youth. High schools and school districts have responded by expanding mental health and social-emotional supports. However, there is little research to understand the ways in which educational…

Talented leaders are essential to building and sustaining successful organizations. This is especially true for schools, where principal leadership plays a major role in fostering student success. Research shows that principals are a significant school-level factor affecting student achievement, second only to classroom teachers. Like other types…

Quality teaching depends on a wide array of personal and contextual factors. An emerging and substantial body of literature has reframed the focus on teaching quality by examining how teachers' abilities to influence student achievement change over the course of their career and how these changes are influenced by the context in which they work.…

Over both recent years and many decades, California districts have produced a range of substantively different approaches to teacher evaluation, demonstrating both the potential for district-level action generally and specific design options. In this report, the authors focus on teacher evaluation programs and further focus on the features of…

NGSS Early Implementers is a six-year initiative created to help eight California school districts and two charter management organizations, supported by WestEd's K-12 Alliance, implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Administrators need learning opportunities if they are to adequately understand the substantial shifts of the Next…

Roughly 30 years ago, American educators stood at a crossroads, with a decision to make about the future of education. With their ears ringing of warnings that they were facing a "rising tide of mediocrity" and recognizing unacceptable gaps in achievement between disadvantaged students and others, educators set off down a path of reform…