The image of success not being a straight, upward arrow but a big, messy scribbled blob defines the career trajectory of the author perfectly. Her work has moved forward, pushed upward, and stretched further, but it has not been a smooth and easy path. In this article, an education consultant reflects on her career highs and lows as she shifts…

The author spends a lot of time thinking about good professional learning vs. typical professional development. Based on her 20-plus years of experience, as well as a bit of inspiration from Reuben Duncan, assistant superintendent in School Administrative Unit 29 in Keene, N.H., she shares what she considers to be the ten best ways to waste…

At different stages of her career, the author has experienced, supported, and facilitated professional learning efforts. As an assistant principal, she finds that she has learned something of value at each stage. In this article, as the author reflects on her career, she realizes that it is important to learn and grow rather than just try to…

Kristen Weatherby is a senior policy analyst at OECD in the education directorate. She runs the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) and is author or co-author of publications and blog posts on TALIS and teachers. She started her career as a classroom teacher in the United States before working in education in the private sector in…

In this article, the author laments that too much of what goes on in schools are shaped by politicians who are more interested in winning elections than in winning good futures for children, who know that being tough but simplistic about "getting results" wins votes, whether or not it fosters learning. As such, the author calls on school leaders…

Vicki Phillips from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation talks with Learning Forward about the foundation's investment in effective teaching and the role of professional learning. Phillips said great teachers are the most important school-based ingredient for student success. So they are committed to ensuring teachers have the supports and tools…

Beverly Hall has been superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools since 1999. Before coming to Atlanta, Hall was state district superintendent of Newark Public Schools, deputy chancellor for instruction of New York City Public Schools, superintendent of Community School District 27 in New York City, and a principal in Brooklyn. Hall chairs Harvard…

This article presents an interview with Judith Warren Little, the Carol Liu Professor of Education Policy at the Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley. She is a sociologist whose research and teaching interests focus on the organizational and policy contexts of teaching and teacher learning. She concentrates especially…

The way public school educators respond to emerging information technologies will be the defining event for public education over the next decade. This author, however, worries about whether public schools have the capacity to take advantage of the revolution going on around them--a revolution that is affecting not only the way students learn, but…

Student learning and development do not occur without teacher learning and development. Not any teacher development will do, though. The old flaws of weak and wayward staff development are well-known--no staff development, in which trial and error are assumed to be enough; staff development that is all ideas and no implementation, i.e. the…

Professional development as a term and as a strategy has run its course. The future of improvement, indeed of the profession itself, depends on a radical shift in how people conceive learning and the conditions under which teachers and students work. In this article, the author discusses five key ideas that together foreshadow his argument and…

In this article, the author discusses some of the most serious challenges--intellectual, institutional, and political--that he sees for the future of professional learning in education. He states that one common solution to these challenges would be for educators to begin to act more like professionals. One thing is clear about the early stages of…

Betty Dillon-Peterson, the director of staff development for the Lincoln (Nebraska) schools, relates key experiences which shaped her career and also her views about how staff developers can work effectively. She advocates design of a special course of study for staff developers. (PP)

This article presents an interview with Richard F. Elmore on the need for educators to develop a collective practice. Elmore is the Gregory R. Anrig professor of educational leadership at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. He is also the co-director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE). His research…

A former educator who currently holds a management position in private industry relates perceptions of the differences between programs in education and business. Clients, content, and training processes of both settings are explored. (DF)