Professional Development: Sorting Through the Jumble to Achieve Success

This special report aims to provide a fresh look at teacher professional development. The stories examine many facets of teacher training, including its research base, implementation in districts, cost, and evolution. For the project, our reporters drew on interviews with teachers, administrators, and scholars.

It is our hope at Education Week that the report will generate new conversations for those school leaders charged with upgrading the quality of teacher professional development.

Download the free interactive PDF version of the report, Professional Development: Sorting Through the Jumble to Achieve Success.

Policy & Practice
Professional Development for Teachers at Crossroads
To be a player, the field must be able to articulate both what it is and how it can help teachers improve student achievement.
November 10, 2010 - Education Week

Proof Lacking on Success of Staff Development
Weakness in education research and obstacles to studying teacher training's impact on student achievement are behind the lack of proof.
November 10, 2010 - Education Week

Mass. District Strives for Teacher 'Learning System'
Administrators and teachers are trying to convert typically scattershot professional development into a seamless endeavor.
November 10, 2010 - Education Week

Mich. District Adds Accountability to Staff Training
School leaders devised ways to provide oversight without being too prescriptive about individual school teams' activities.
November 10, 2010 - Education Week

Business & Finance
Staff-Development Providers Eye New Opportunities
Still, the industry will have to compete for market share with districts as school systems shift ever more training in-house.
November 10, 2010 - Education Week

Full Cost of Professional Development Hidden
Districts tend to consider training as programming, which leads to underestimating other investments in teachers' knowledge and skills.
November 10, 2010 - Education Week

Questions Arise Over Teacher-Credential Expenses
Experts differ over whether additional course credits or advanced degrees should be counted as professional-development spending.
November 10, 2010 - Education Week

Curriculum
Experts Search for Best Content to Train Teachers
Both content and instructional knowledge are among the elements of professional development that researchers are examining.
November 10, 2010 - Education Week

Texas District Targets Teachers for ELL Training
An evaluation Austin conducted of the first two years of the program for regular classroom teachers finds it "moderately effective."
November 10, 2010 - Education Week


For ongoing news, resources, data, and special reports on professional development in education, bookmark the Professional Development Topic Page.

Multimedia: Teacher Profiles



As Education Week reporters in 2010 investigated the critical challenges involved in improving the quality of teacher professional development and in-service training, they collected compelling stories from classroom teachers about their experiences, both good and bad.

View the Teacher Profiles >>>

Professional Development Directory

Teacher PD Sourcebook Directory is the most complete interactive, online professional development resource for K-12 educators.

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