The Standard's Brief is a regular feature of the Learning Forward Virginia website. In each brief, we will describe and provide resources for additional learning on one of the seven Standards for Professional Learning. The first brief will provide an overview of the Standards for Professional Learning.

As we continue our conversation about the New Standards for Professional Learning, let's consider core concepts. Each of our new professional learning standards has four core concepts – educator, effectiveness, results, and all students embedded in the stem, or beginning of each of the standards. For example, more...

» Full Standards Brief Collection



The Latest Tools for Learning Schools is Free For All Readers
The current issue of Tools for Learning Schools, sponsored by MetLife Foundation, looks at how practitioners can use Learning Forward's free workbook, Professional Learning Policy Review: A Workbook for States and Districts, to assess if their policies support the professional learning required for changes such as implementing Common Core State Standards. Learn how to move people through a series of stages to evaluate the policies a system has in place and consider recommendations for changes.

The tool, Current practices in professional learning, uses open-ended questions to gather stakeholders' perspectives and help understand how to strengthen the quality and effects of professional learning. More...

Free Workbook Explores Finding Time for Collaboration
Finding time for job-embedded professional learning is one of the most frequently cited challenges with implementing the Common Core State Standards. With the release of Establishing Time for Professional Learning, districts and schools have a free workbook to guide their work as they develop, assess, and implement recommendations for increasing collaborative learning time for educators.

The workbook is organized into seven steps of a process for studying, designing, and implementing time for educator collaboration. Establishing Time for Professional Learning was created as part of Learning Forward's initiative, Transforming Professional Learning to Prepare College- and Career-Ready Students: Implementing the Common Core, which is supported by Sandler Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and MetLife Foundation.

»  Download this free workbook