Findings from an extensive four-year program with a single cohort of elementary and early middle school mathematics instructors highlight several important themes that can inform other efforts in developing teacher leaders. The authors describe the Arizona Master Teachers of Mathematics (AZ-MTM) program as an example that supports the development…

This article describes three reasons Twitter has become an essential part of US National Teacher of the Year Rebecca Mieliwocki's teaching life: (1) It provides professional development on demand by offering a steady stream of great new ideas, activities, lesson suggestions, book recommendations, and teaching tips that can be immediately…

A state department of education (SDE) served by the Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) at SEDL requested information regarding state use of schoolwide, large-scale professional learning communities (PLCs). Specifically, the SDE staff wanted to know the following with respect to PLC work in other states: (1) Are PLCs state-mandated through…

The continuous professional development of teachers is crucial in our current knowledge-based society, yet empirical research on experienced teachers' learning outcomes is scarce. In this study, we examine perceived changes in classroom practices and in competence as outcomes. By making these outcomes measurable, we can relate them to several…

This article describes a novel effort in New York City, the Learning Partners Program, which matches veteran principals with two or more newer ones. In 2014-15, the first full year of the effort, the city's Department of Education put 73 of the city's more than 1,800 schools into 23 groups of threes and one group of four. Every group comprised one…

The Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning (TELL) AISD Survey gathers information about school conditions from the educators working in schools. TELL obtains perceptions on a variety of issues related to student achievement and staff retention. In 2016, 5,309 AISD teachers (91%) and 3,092 other campus employees completed the survey. This full…

In international school contexts, schools that establish support networks for newly arrived staff tend to stand a better chance of retaining staff and creating a positive and successful work environment. The case study at the center of the paper is an International School in Vietnam and this paper aims to highlight the importance of building…

This article opens with a thought provoking question--When it comes to defining teacher leadership, how much do we limit ourselves by assuming that the way teachers work today must always be the way teachers work? The author points out that pioneering groups of public school teachers across the United States are advancing a new definition of…

This study attempts to reveal the process of teacher leadership (TL) and its implications for teacher education. Two rounds of interviews, including focus group interviews with six chosen schools in Taiwan, were conducted to reveal the process. It was found that the development of TL is a stretching process from the key leader to core members,…

All across California, educators are finding that creating strong and effective Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) at every grade level or in every subject area is not easy. It may be tempting to conclude that PLCs are one more idea that did not work. But there is solid research to support the core concepts of PLCs: (1) a focus on learning;…

In response to the need for change in teaching practices, educators have bolstered efforts to provide professional development for teachers. However, research suggests that traditional models of professional development for educators are largely ineffective. Decades of research has also demonstrated that in order to bring about teacher change,…

Recent scholarship on teacher professional development has shown renewed interest in collaborative forms of teacher learning. Networks, communities of practice and clusters are related concepts that describe forms of collaboration between schools and/or teachers that encourage such learning. In South Africa, teacher clusters represent a relatively…

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) can be powerful tools for school improvement but require principals and teachers to collaborate and work together. This article reports on a qualitative multi-case study focused on six elementary schools in West Texas that had been identified for having effective PLCs. Principals and teachers were observed…

When teachers collaborate in schools, taking collective responsibility to improve instruction and achieve goals, student performance improves and good results happen. Wyoming is one example of a state that uses peer-to-peer professional learning with notable results. Teachers joined together to form a statewide professional community and saw the…

This qualitative study looked at a book club for US teachers in public schools focused on teaching writing to English language learners (ELLs). To guide the study, the central research questions were: (1) What are teachers' perceptions about a book club professional development experience?; and (2) How are teachers' views about second language…