**please note presenter change**

Schools are concerned about the chronic nature of achievement gaps for traditionally marginalized students. To address this concern, join this session to develop understanding about how to use a collaborative inquiry process to implement culturally responsive practices that leverage students’ cultural and linguistic assets and accelerate diverse students’ capacity for rigor. Examine case studies using the Collaborative Analysis of Student Learning, a professional learning process, and an instructional guide.

A solid understanding of social emotional health is the one thing no educator can afford to ignore. Engage with other participants and the presenters in a workshop to develop an understanding of the definition of social-emotional health. Examine easy-to-grasp concepts in neuroscience to understand what is happening in students’ brains and how to use that information to enhance learning. Walk away with simple, tangible strategies that you can implement immediately.

Learn about a suite of tools and processes designed to help you select and support the enactment of instructional materials for next generation science. Engage with other participants as a mock selection committee to learn to analyze instructional materials based on important look-fors in high-quality instructional materials. Dig into resources that support leaders, first, in preparing for the selection process and, then, planning to monitor and support the effective use of materials in classrooms.

Professional learning that improves educator effectiveness is fundamental for the continuous improvement of teaching and learning. Research suggests that engaging professional learning should be designed for transfer into classroom instruction and learning for students. To help connect teaching and learning, today's leaders of adult learning need a specific skill set. Join this highly interactive session to examine the attributes of result-driven professional learning while you apply tips and gain tools for engaging the adult learner.

Experience the Question Formulation Technique (QFT), a simple, powerful strategy to teach students to ask their own questions. In this hands-on, active learning session, master this powerful technique for immediate classroom use and for effective professional learning. Collaborate with experienced school leaders and educators from across the country to plan how you can easily integrate this strategy to drive inquiry, greater engagement, and deeper learning, for both students and educators.

Planning for instruction and conferring are at the heart of content-focused coaching—the time during which two professionals collaboratively study artifacts of practice to glean insights that advance pedagogy. Join us to study key coaching practices that lay the groundwork for deep and specific planning conferences. Video artifacts, for example, ground coach and teacher dialogue in compelling evidence for planning and decision making. Explore tools and processes that leverage video for deeper reflection. Examine three data-driven practices to learn how the administrator can serve as a critical agent in shaping the learning /inquiry stance among teachers, thereby making coaching possible.

Using discussion protocols in schools isn't a new concept, but it has become more common place in the past five years. Unfortunately, many users of protocols have been "protocoled" in a district or school gathering and the residual taste in their mouth isn't positive nor productive. This interactive session positions participants to experience well-facilitated discussion protocols, leaving with the necessary skills to better match a purpose to protocol to serve the group's needs.

Explore dispositions known as "habits of mind" and their role in the development of leaders and their capacity. Learn about connections between habits of mind and neurosciences. Apply these dispositions in decision making related to personally generated challenges.

In this interactive design session, we get to rethink what educator learning should look like to support transformation and movment toward next- generation learning. Engage with other participants to dive deeply into rethinking the "how," "why," and "what" of professional learning, as well as the enabling conditions. Then work together to design your next-generation professional learning system, complete with prototypes to get started.

NOTE: Presenters and description have been updated

Do you want to better understand the current state of your mathematics instructional coaching program and foster professional growth aligned to research-informed best practices among your leaders and coaches? Innovation configuration maps that describe the job-embedded work of leaders and coaches can support understanding of coaching strengths and opportunities for improvement. Come explore tools to support purposeful opportunities to collaboratively examine your leadership and coaching program and make decisions aligned to standards, key shifts in mathematics, and your vision of excellence for all students. 

Join us for hands-on learning that will help you see technology as an underutilized tool to improve teacher practice and student outcomes. Learn practical ways to assess current learning so you can start building a roadmap for progress. Empower teachers and engage students. Be sure to bring your devices (e.g. laptop, Chromebook, smartphone, tablet) fully charged. Leave with great resources that you can share with your staff and peers to make an impact and take student learning to the next level.

Systems can be difficult to describe. All of us know the respiratory system exists, but few can explain its essential roles and responsibilities in sustaining living organisms. Effective learning systems are no less difficult to describe. Join this session, based on the book Becoming a Learning System, and focus on the essential attributes of a learning system, roles and responsibilities of key players, strategies for building district- and school-based learning agendas for learning teams, and how systems thrive in a cycle of continuous improvement. Hear how one district made the  journey to become a model system of learning. Learn about the successes and the challenges; leave with strategies you can use to apply to an issue in your own district for which professional learning is an appropriate response.

Educators know that collaborative professional learning strengthens instructional practice and enhances student learning, but in reality, collaborative learning does not always lead to improved practice. Join us to explore a transformative professional learning model that uses continuous improvement cycles, teacher-led video study of classroom practice, and student-facing rubrics. Learn key practices to step up site-based collaborative learning, including guidance for how to integrate classroom video and strategies that promote teacher and student agency.

Unlock the mystery of collective efficacy by improving the quality of collaborative professional conversations. Learn how to engage teams in nine conversations designed to build collective efficacy and develop the skills needed to build knowledge coherence–an essential measure of success. The true measure of collective efficacy is coherent words and actions that demonstrate how teachers individually and collectively make a difference for students. And that coherence of word and action changes school culture.

If you wait until you administer a summative assessment to determine whether students have learned what you are teaching, then you have waited too long! Join this session to learn how to ask higher-level questions that cause students to think deeply. Join other participants to create and assess a list of products and performances to see whether students are learning. Identify the four ways that students can knock the top off of any test!

No matter what role we play in a school or district, each of us wants to make a difference. Yet, in our interactions we often are left confused and overwhelmed. Participate in this workshop to strengthen your decision-making capabilities, resistance management strategies, and stress tolerance. Leave with cognitive, social, and psychological resources to help you communicate more effectively.

Learn how to improve student learning at scale by focusing on the use of high-quality curricula supported by effective professional learning. Review research-informed strategies for selecting and implementing educative instructional materials. See how to design curriculum-based professional learning that can transform teaching in the classroom. Explore how teachers can deepen their pedagogical content knowledge using a high-quality curriculum.

Hear how the Holdsworth Center, a Texas-based leadership development center, has partnered with seven public school districts across the state to rethink talent management. Learn how to build aligned systems and structures that identify, develop, place, and support highly effective campus leaders in all schools to better serve students. Join the conversation to share your thoughts about the process, how districts think about talent, and what we’ve learned along the way.

Explore common cognitive biases from the interpretation of educational data and learn strategies and tips to avoid each one. Apply these strategies to case studies of school data and engage in a collaborative discussion protocol to help surface blind spots in your current data analysis process that may be susceptible to cognitive biases. Leave with a "tool box of strategies" to refine your data interpretation process.

Discover the collaborative inquiry process used as a process for School Improvement Planning that informs and empowers educators by involving them in the process. Identify structures, strategies and principles used by Two Rivers Middle in Nashville, Tennessee to support student success. Become a member of a virtual community of practice to engage in collaborative inquiry about school improvement.

Explore the concepts of anti-bias education and learn strategies for making schools more equitable, culturally-responsive, inclusive and respectful. Invest in your own professional development through participation in activities to hone your anti-bias mastery skills. Leave this interactive session more aware of your anti-bias strengths and areas for growth and your integral role in positively shaping school culture.

How do successful data teams collect and analyze data to improve outcomes for all students or a specific subgroup of students? Using the frameworks of Implementation Science, review best practices in team development, systems and protocols to identify priority needs to improve outcomes for students. Explore tools, strategies and protocols that guide data teams in effective decision making. Leave with strategies and protocols for prioritizing student work.

Grapple with the creative tensions that arise when educators dedicated to social and emotional learning explore the social justice implications of the goal we have for every student to experience a warm, safe, supportive school climate focused on academic success for all. Explore what role the commitment to equity plays in how SEL is introduced, supported and experienced by all members of a school community. Leave with a commitment to take action that will help ALL students achieve academic success.

Engage with the author of the award-winning book, Who Moved My Standards, as he contrasts the evolution of teaching with the blazing transformation of the world and details how core instruction must also transform to prepare students with New Economy Skills. Learn how to move a school from old economy, teacher-centered instruction to new economy, high engagement student-centered classrooms that significantly raise student achievement. Leave with an action plan to move your school or classroom to the next evidence level on the Ignite Rigor Student Evidence Rubric.

Schools are filled with initiatives and programs that could improve student achievement, yet struggle with implementation and effectively changing educator practice. Explore how a district used a laser like focus on implementation and effective protocols to establish a cycle of continuous improvement and systematic support to effectively change educator practice. Leave with the experience of using protocols that can be directly applied to your problem of practice in support of your vision.

Visualize the best and worst presentations you have ever experienced as an adult learner. No doubt, there is a discernible difference between the two. Experience 20 brain-compatible strategies which take advantage of the ways adult brains learn best; determine techniques for assisting adults in making meaningful behavior change; and delineate the characteristics of quality professional learning experiences. Leave with a plan for your next professional learning experience that incorporates some of the strategies that take advantage of the ways all adult and student brains learn best.

How can we scale innovative professional learning so all teachers change their practice? Learn about an innovative professional learning model focused on developing teacher agency and support for four key aspects of scale in the professional learning design: sustainability, spread, depth, and shift in reform ownership. Leave with an understanding of how to design innovative professional learning that can be scaled and sustained.

Explore the power of video reflection and collaborative feedback to improve instruction. Navigate through the video reflection process in this interactive session and learn how to implement video learning teams. Leave with a plan to implement video learning teams and use video reflection as a powerful professional learning experience in your school or district.

Learn how high quality professional learning before, during, and after instructional materials adoption builds capacity, supports teacher and administrator learning, and ensures student access to high quality instructional materials. Use this successful model for professional development and consensus building to bolster your own efforts to select and use high quality materials. Leave with tools and resources for each step in the adoption process from assembling a district team and designing an evaluation tool to the professional learning to support educators in doing that work.

Learn how implementing high-quality instructional materials in ELA classrooms can improve student outcomes and teacher knowledge and support. Discover high-quality tools to help you evaluate instructional materials for quality and learn about the district- and school-level structures that will set teachers up for success. Leave knowing how to create structures of support to help teachers and leaders implement more rigorous materials.

Leadership is everyone’s business! Learn what millions of people all over the world – ordinary people like us – do when they make extraordinary things happen in their organizations. Experience the 5 Practices, 10 Commitments, and 30 leadership behaviors that exemplary leaders practice. Transform your values into actions, visions into realities, obstacles into innovations, separateness into solidarity, and risks into rewards! Leave with goals and key actions to generate small wins on your journey to meeting your goals.

This story begins with evolution of leadership perceptions and practices regarding professional development and ends with identifiable changes in how professional development is planned and implemented across a midsize school district in Suffolk, VA. Explore research-based practices, use of student data, and job-embedded PD used to change teacher beliefs and practices. Leave knowing how to use SAI2 data to provide insight into teacher perceptions regarding professional development and implementation.

Learn how a large urban school district is addressing teacher attrition through targeted local solutions and building teacher capacity. Explore Miami-Dade's Teacher Academy Model, an exemplar in positioning teachers to be a catalyst for change in schools and for elevating teaching across all aspects of the continuum. Leave with next steps for supporting and transforming teachers into leaders focused on strengthening and impacting teaching, learning, achievement at your sites and districts.

Learn how to build a culture of ownership among all stakeholders in your district or organization. See how re-defining leadership creates pervasive spheres of empowerment and leads to extreme ownership at all levels of a school district. Leave with the experience gained to innovate your current organizational structures to support a culture of ownership.

How can teacher leadership have its greatest impact? Engage with the authors of Learning Forward’s report, A Systemic Approach To Elevating Teacher Leadership, in an exploration of this practical resource for initiating, reviewing, revising and assessing teacher leadership within one’s own school or school system. Examine assumptions about teacher leadership and their impact on your work. Explore a pioneering definition of teacher leadership, the roles and responsibilities of teacher leaders, and the conditions and dispositions that will advance your work. Leave with a plan of action for your work.

Imagine creating a place where change is embraced, beliefs and values shift, relationships develop and conflict is simply seen as energy! Welcome to the Ecotone where you will explore adaptive leadership, adaptive schools, immunity to change, communicative intelligence, and d-thinking into a leadership framework. Leave with an understanding of how to use the Ecotone to address adaptive challenges.

Engage with a story of educational transformation - informed by the knowledge of teachers, students and community; grounded in the wisdom of indigenous people; weaving together a global education conversation, an empowering curriculum, and learning sciences. Explore the role that school and district leadership play. Leave with frameworks and processes  to apply in your context.

Discover innovative job-embedded professional learning opportunities for instructional leaders. Choose from a variety of mini sessions that highlight different approaches to building instructional leadership that uses resources and strategies to build their repertoire of professional learning approaches. Leave this session with concrete strategies to take back to your educational setting.

Learn how to use conversations about students as a mechanism to enhance teacher instructional capacity and maximize distributed coaching. Examine the essential elements of the Collaborative Response Model--an Alberta-born framework--that values purposeful collaboration, action-focused responses, data-informed discussions, and timely intervention to ensure all students can experience success. Leave with next steps to establish a framework of responsiveness for identified school or district priorities.

Analyze the components of an effective, multi-year school plan of continuous improvement and participate in embedded Professional Development Cycles of teacher reflection, accountability and growth. Conduct “Learning Walks” using The Powerful Task Rubric to determine base-line, real-time data regarding student engagement, viable standards alignment, and cognitive demand of classroom learning tasks. Leave with the experience of participating in micro-teaching cycles designed to increase rigor and student engagement.

Have you ever wondered how your professional learning program design would stand-up during a rigorous review by a panel of outside experts? Learn how LEAP Innovations enlisted help from professional learning experts to validate their core personalized learning program offerings. Leave knowing how the design of the validation process can be applied in your local contexts.

Discover how to infuse the “WOW” factor in your district’s Professional Learning through Peer Coaching! Learn how to create an adult friendly, unique, personalized, and sustainable job-embedded professional learning experience for teachers within buildings, across a district, and within PLCs. Establish an economically practical pathway for non-evaluative reciprocal teacher improvement based on quality structures and delivered through both face-to-face and online methods. Leave with an action plan for implementation of a peer coaching model.

Engage in real-time experiences to create secondary classrooms where students feel affirmed, where their voices are heard and honored, and where their developmental and cultural needs are met. Explore practical approaches to embed social emotional learning (SEL) competencies into four classroom learning domains aligned with research-based core practices that foster students’ capacity to be self-directed independent learners, and help teachers integrate them in any subject.

2Revolutions, with generous support from a national funder and through deep collaboration with a range of leading organizations, is spearheading a large-scale effort to make available free, high-quality learning content to help educators build the knowledge and skills they need to personalize learning for students. Our thesis is simple: If we can leverage a set of high quality, free and open content and deploy it broadly, we can accelerate the transition to personalized learning. In this interactive session, you will explore the diagnostic tools as a gateway to this free content and make a plan for how to leverage it in your district.

If we believe every child has a right to learn, then HOW do we assure this right through engaged and inspired learning? Build knowledge and skills to apply the Danielson Framework for Teaching as a tool for equitable and effective teaching practices. Learn how Washington State and Seattle Public Schools aligned their statewide system and the Framework for Teaching resulting in increased student achievement and success. Leave with new knowledge and strategies for personal and professional learning that ensure equitable and effective teaching practices that raise student achievement for each and every student.

Create a successful learning environment by focusing on more than just classroom management. Learn what preeminent teacher effectiveness frameworks, state standards, and the wisdom of classroom teachers help identify as the “Four Cornerstones” of all successful classrooms, regardless of grade level or content area. Explore each of these Four Cornerstones in depth and acquire practical and proven instructional tools to build each cornerstone in your classroom.

Coaches operate within 10 roles defined by Killion & Harrison (2016), but what observable impact should their efforts have on teacher growth? Only if program leadership has defined a clear vision for the expected impact will coaches and campus leaders have a full vision of the power and impact of coaching. Experience how crafting an clear vision of expected outcomes provides clarity for the work of coaches and their professional learning. Join other coaches and leaders to examine the difference between the activities and the impact of coaching. Develop 3 to 6 statements of expected outcomes for an instructional coaching program and consider levels of implementation to create an instructional program matrix that can help you design program components and assess impact. Leave with a process to engage your team in the development of measurable outcomes for your coaching program.

Unleash the power of teacher teams by facilitating deep learning and application of a four-step formative assessment cycle, where teachers: 1) clarify learning targets and success criteria for themselves and their students; 2) infuse formative assessment throughout their instruction; 3) analyze student work frequently and in depth; 4) and provide timely, targeted feedback, reteaching, and extension. Leave with activities for building your expertise in each of these high-impact steps.

Explore your cultural lens and how it impacts your understanding of culture. Develop an understanding of the complex impact that personal identity and background have on every aspect of life, carefully considering the intersection of race within education, class, geography, family structure, gender, sexual orientation or community structure. Walk away with a better understanding of the impact of biases on the education of our students.

Boost the understanding, motivation and skillsets of your school's leaders, teachers and families for integrating Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) into daily practice. Immerse yourself in three professional learning engagements (Foundations of SEL; Families as SEL Partners; Intro to CASEL Guide to Schoolwide SEL). Debrief, reflect and contextualize PD for your own work. Walk away equipped with materials, resources and strategies for facilitating them in your district!

Professional learning plans serve as the compass for a comprehensive professional learning system and the instrument that powers educator learning. Review research and examples of district and program professional learning plans. Begin your own professional learning plan or bring the one you have to experience personalized coaching around your plan! Leave with tools and strategies to create and revise high quality plans.

Learn from neuroscience research from the NeuroLeadership Institute and HCI, Human Capital Institute that reports that mindset and skill requirements for supervisors has dramatically changed in the past five years. Build capacity to dramatically shift thinking about the role of supervisor using the most powerful, essential and effective skills for supporting real change, growth and RESULTS - the skills of being a "coach leader." Leave with a transformed mindset of supervision. 

Coaches and teachers assume significant roles in schools and school systems today. Learn about the 10 roles described in the second edition of Taking the Lead: New Roles for Teachers and School-based Coaches, how the roles contribute to teaching quality and student learning, and the knowledge, skills, practices, and challenges associated with each role. Teachers, teacher leaders, coaches, principals, and district leaders will learn how to narrow the focus of coaching roles, assess the impact of each role, and address common challenges coaches face.

Delve into the “right work” of PLCs as you explore a Standards-Based PLC Cycle that illustrates the core work of job-embedded professional learning. Move beyond the collaborative process to ensure improved student outcomes. Examine a concrete model and ways to utilize research-based protocols to support transference to the classroom. Leve with processes/protocols to faciitate professional learning on on your campus.

Feedback to Feed Forward: 31 Strategies to Lead Learning, a new book published by SAGE Corwin, provides strategies for instructional leaders to observe and provide feedback that you can immediately apply. Learn to focus your evidence-collection, analysis, and feedback on teaching and learning, determining teacher effectiveness and its impact on student engagement and learning. Leave equipped to support teacher growth in any capacity.

Even with a great strategic vision for professional development, it may be hard to implement with dwindling budgets. Identify how you can realize your vision through partnerships, resource development (human, in-kind and financial) and grant writing. Leave with next steps to financially support your PD efforts to improve educator effectiveness and student success. Please bring a tablet or laptop.

Get an update on the George W. Bush Institute’s School Leadership Initiative, where four districts are working to improve how they prepare, support, and keep their most effective school principals. Reviewing progress half way through a three-year initiative, the team will share lessons learned about readiness factors and first steps in improving principal talent management in a district. The Bush Institute will share tools created for the four districts, including a principal evaluation guidebook and effective implementation tools.

Explore the evidence that shows standards-aligned instructional materials combined with curriculum-based professional development are associated with a statistically significant increase in student learning and teachers’ understanding of academic standards. Join this session to hear how educators are leveraging professional learning anchored in a system that includes strong, high-quality instructional materials to provide access to college- and career-ready standards for ALL students.

Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) is a popular approach in education currently, but few schools have been able to actualize its promise. Explore the core design principles of CRT through the work of one middle school instructional leadership team using processes, strategies, and structures that shift teacher mindset and change student learning moves. Examine the uses of the Ready for Rigor framework from the bestselling book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. Expand your personal toolkit with new protocols, checklists, and activities

Learn about the extraordinary challenges that have forced administrators and teachers to navigate multilayered obstacles steeped in issues of diversity and xenophobia in PreK-12 schools. Gain knowledge of how to create and foster an authentic empowering school culture from the descriptions of the process, professional learning, and structures necessary to equip teachers and leaders with requisite skills to prioritize and embrace empowerment for all learners. Leave with a deeper understanding of what it means to be fierce leaders of race, equity, and diversity dialogues.

Are you committed to making an impact and closing the opportunity gap and providing all students access to mathematics that allow them to achieve at the highest levels? Hear how four Denver Public school teams partnered with the Professional Learning and Math departments and engaged in peer to peer learning around issues of equity in math classrooms, using the Improvement Science methodology. Leave with knowlege of the structure of the program, measurement plans, the impact on students and how teachers are changing their practice.

Explore the instructional pedagogies needed to transform your classroom into an innovative, engaging STEM environment. Learn to support students through engaging them in higher order thinking, inquiry-based problem solving and the engineering design process. Create inquiry-based STEM instruction that encourages learners to think critically and have a high level of STEM proficiency. Leave with several classroom-ready resources and a better understanding of how to draw from existing assets such as literacy-based strategies to inform STEM-focused learning and instruction.

Dive into national research conducted to better understand how K-8 public school parents communicate about their child’s social, emotional, cognitive, and academic development. Build your understanding of parent attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs; identify the elements of social, emotional, cognitive, and academic learning strategies that resonate most with parents and which ones cause confusion; and learn about the sources of information that garner their trust. Leave with a better understanding of which skills and traits are most important to parents.

Explore the implementation and management of the Austin ISD Mentoring Program that supports successful mentor practice with novice teachers. Examine the essential components building trust, planning, observing, analyzing, and reflecting) of being a successful mentor. Utilize tools and resources for supporting novice teachers such as observation tools, data analysis tools, and conversation protocols. Leave with next steps to support novice teachers at your campus or district.

Learn how three teacher leaders in unique contexts persisted through five phases of an adapted learning cycle framework to help peers improve instructional practices. Collaboratively, engage with authentic professional learning scenarios, surface challenges, and apply the framework to identify strategies. Understand supports teacher leaders need to be effective, and gain ideas and resources for strengthening your abilities to lead peers through critical phases of a learning cycle—reflection and iteration. Leave with an understanding of support needed by teacher leaders and how to scaffold their learning to facilitate learning of their peers.

Learn how to plan professional learning using collaborative inquiry to develop and enhance effective skills and dispositions of education practitioners. Explore how a planning framework can provide a common language and logic-based process for purposefully and respectfully formulating theories of action to address shared problems of practice and evaluating their outcomes. Leave with knowledge of using data to define a problem of practice and the tools and process to address the problems.

Explore eBadging as a personalized professional learning pathway that supports a culture of collaboration and continuous learning. Engage with practitioners from a Texas school district who are in the midst of this journey in order to grow extraordinary professionals based on their own goals and needs. Share your own stories of personalizing learning for professionals and consider how this journey may impact your own.

How do districts overcome the challenge of implementing new materials and  ensuring that new materials are ACTUALLY being used? Experience how Hastings Public Schools uses the Executive Leadership Program to build the capacity of a core group of teachers to lead the implementation of new curriculum materials. Leave with a sample implementation plan focused on the systematic collection of balanced data to inform ongoing professional learning.

How do we close the academic achievement gap as our culturally and linguistically population continues to grow? Analyze and explore misconceptions of classroom norms and student learning based on a deeper understanding of the role of culture in academic success. Evaluate culturally responsive and responsible curriculum materials and texts while determining rigorous and engaging learning that prepares students for a 21st century global economy. Leave with an action plan that reflects the learning from the session and includes the indicators or “look fors” of success.

Join leaders from a fast-growth school district in Texas who supervise and support building principals as they share their framework for fostering increased principal collaboration and instructional leadership through the design of Learning Cycles. While focusing on key elements of curriculum, instruction and assessment, dive into strategic processes that foster deep collaboration with principals, central office leaders and teachers to enhance instruction and close achievement gaps across the organization. Leave with the knowledge of how to design structures that will move your organization and professional learning forward.

Wouldn't you love to see teachers implementing differentiated instruction to ensure all students succeed? After reviewing an innovation configuration map, determine where your respective school scores and share with others to gain feedback. Develop an action plan for how to determine steps to move the school to higher levels. Leave with a plan to provide instructional leadership for implementing differentiated instruction for student success.

Discover how teacher-driven professional learning engages teachers and improves their practice, and how TeachingPartners’ own teacher-led network helps establish professional learning systems and structures that teachers want to use. Learn how just a few essential technologies and tools make it easy for teachers to extend their professional expertise and leadership. Hear directly from teacher-leaders who have helped design professional learning. Leave with the knowledge of how to integrate teacher-tested professional learning approaches, and how to start working collaboratively with other teachers to share and personalize proven approaches.

What elements are essential for teacher leaders to effectively lead professional learning teams and support teacher growth? Learn how districts developed an infrastructure of teacher leaders who serve on school leadership teams and facilitate professional learning. Explore the school structures and the teacher training and support that empower teacher leaders to be successful. Leave with action steps for improving your instructional coaching and building professional learning teams using teacher leaders.

How can you be intentional about systemic improvement in such a way that access and equity are a natural part of the conversation? Come learn how an education service center engaged with areas district and used the process of continuous improvement to align outcomes and activities through Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles, including how they opened doors for rich conversations about access and equity. This interactive session will offer opportunities to learn and refine practices surrounding PDSA cycles, including the use of protocols, intentional points of reflection, and coaching partners. Leave with tools to improve your system.

How do you build a culture of coaching in an entire organization that amplifies teaching? Learn how one district grew its culture into a wall to wall coaching program through positive relationship building and strategic program development. Learn strategies for trust building at the individual and organizational level consider applications for your own setting. Develop an action plan for steps you can take to develop, grow or enhance your instructional coaching model and relationships.

Gain insight on the power of Learning Communities for teachers and students by learning to use data to make instructional decisions. Learn how teachers can use daily data in learning communities to make greater impact with their students. Leave with a plan to drive proactive Learning Communities where teachers can look at daily, leading data and use protocols on scoring consistency and calibration.

Learn about the concept, components, and benefits of collaborative leadership based on the theory of Leading from the Middle for organizations, districts, schools, educators and students. Explore the potential of inter-district collaboration and its impact on staff and student learning and leading  Understand the results of critical inquiry relating to collaborative leadership and its impact on building equity, well-being, and achievement as described in the 2018 research study conducted by Hargreaves and Shirley. Explore the power and possibilities of collaborative leadership in your system or school.

Learn from Georgia State University about a partnership with four metro Atlanta School Districts, one HBCU and their rural partner districts, along with a national nonprofit organization to work collaboratively to positively impact P12 student learning. Gain knowledge of an urban and rural teacher residency model, professional learning communities, a menu of services available through the partnership, and college and career readiness programs. Engage in activities that highlight partnership development, collaborative grant writing, action research, teacher wellness and developing effective teacher mentors. Leave with a menu of services for your local schools based on perceived needs. 

Take a critical look at traditional professional development models and discover how two schools in San Antonio, TX implemented non-traditional PD offerings. Explore offerings such as formal instruction, in-depth studies, quick one-time training sessions, and informal conversations. Share your own experiences and adapt these concepts to takeaway for immediate implementation.

Principals are critical to the instructional success of a school. And while getting pre-service principal training right is essential, continued support for school leaders after they’re hired is equally important. Discuss how competency-based micro-credentials are being leveraged to provide ongoing support, training, and coaching for school principals. Gain a better understanding of how micro-credentials work and how they are being used to support principal development. Leave with a headstart on earning your first micro-credential.

Learn how structures, tools, and technology are combined to prepare school-based coaches to enhance their coaching cycles using videos of lessons as a powerful artifact of practice. Witness how one coach initiated video-as-catalyst in her school to assist teachers' study and facilitation of rigorous text discussion. Engage in analysis of coach-teacher conferring based on video, examine coaching tools, and practice coaching moves that foster collaboration and reflection. Leave with knowledge of how to use video to leverage powerful coaching conversations.

Learn about Halifax County High School’s journey re-imagining a high school using design-thinking practices. Discover how to use innovative approaches, tools, and processes to make lasting changes that positively affect students’ learning and be "life ready" in an economy and a world characterized by rapid change. Leave with the knowledge of how to design and launch your own redesign journey through the framework and the redesign experiences of others.

Wisconsin has developed a unique and successful protocol, combining virtual and site-based facilitation, to deliver professional learning to educators simultaneously across 12 regions. In its third year, Working on the Work (WOW) leverages the state educator effectiveness system for individual, team, and school development. Learn about the design, execution, and formative evaluation of WOW, and leave with practical tips for implementing a similar process locally.

Learn how New York City and Tennessee are scaling teacher leadership through competency-based career pathway models recognized through micro-credentials. Analyze leadership competencies and how to use micro-credentials to provide a vehicle to effectively assess mastery towards a career pathway for Emerging Teacher Leaders and Master Teachers. Leave with the skills and knowledge to self-assess and plan forward for advancing teacher leader roles and career pathways in your district or state.

Discover how digital tools support participation, communication, accessibility and reflection in professional learning opportunities. Learn about different models for virtual professional learning within and across school divisions. Create an action plan for using this information in the setting in which you work.

NEW (added 9/25/2018)

Investigate a research-based instructional coaching model for middle and high school teachers at all experience levels based on the CLASS system developed by the University of Virginia. Discover the benefits of this student engagement focused coaching model for participating teachers, coaches, and schools. Learn how you can participate in a pilot study using this model funded by one of the prestigious EIR grants.

XQ’s September 2015 launch of an open call to reimagine the American high school elicited responses from more than 10,000 people from all 50 states, representing nearly 4,000 communities. Investigate their most promising ideas for innovative, student-centered designs for 21st-century learning. XQ has pledged over $115 million to actively support teams on their journeys to becoming Super Schools. Go deep with one of the XQ Schools on how their design changes both the role of the teacher and student learning, and the structures and systems that need to be in place to make this happen.

Distributed Leadership: What is it? What do we know? What is the evidence? How do we ensure quality, and can this be done at scale? What else do we still need to learn? An interactive panel led by Amy Slamp of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will examine these questions and more. Join panel members to hear more about recent work done to identify the key components of distributed leadership and what they look like in practice.

Learn about six school districts that set out in 2011 to develop and support a large corps of highly qualified school principals as part of The Wallace Foundation’s Principal Pipeline Initiative (PPI). Explore the highlights of the RAND Corporation’s soon-to-be-released study of the impact this work has had on student achievement and teacher retention. Leave this session with information on the effective practices developed in PPI districts, lessons learned, and the work ahead.

What happens when you connect students, teachers, parents, post-secondary, and business to co-construct the future of learning? Find out why British Columbia, already a top-performing jurisdiction, felt they needed to embark on such an ambitious transformation process. What lessons can we learn? What are the professional learning implications for the K-12 system, university admissions including teacher pre-service, and other stakeholders?

Use data-informed decision-making to identify and leverage the highest-impact components of a professional learning plan. Learn how Special School District empowers instructional mentors to provide ongoing supports that result in incremental growth of best instructional practices for educators. Move from data to insight as you engage in a simulation guided by artifacts from a new teacher induction program focused on special education teachers. Leave with the abiity to transfer applicable professional learning strategies unique to special education teachers to support new educators.

Bring your devices and explore a variety of digital assessment tools, focusing on the data they provide and how you can use the feedback to refine your practice. Examine the assessment cycle and compare digital assessment tools that collect data for teachers and provide options for feedback to students. Leave with knowledge of technology that can help you provide feedback that is consistent, specific, and frequent.

Learn about an accountability process that holds administrators responsible for their student data on a regular basis. Reflect on the data protocols you have in place at your school and how they align with your improvement plan. Determine which metrics make the biggest impact on your improvement efforts that will help your school go to the next level. Leave with an evaluation process that reflects your improvement plan and the needs of the school.

Teacher-led professional learning is all the rage, but with so many initiatives and so little time, what steps can school leaders take to promote initiatives that retain quality teachers and make an impact on student learning? Hear about how one school leveraged teacher-leadership roles and coaching to successfully transition to one-to-one personalized learning. Understand how teacher-led professional learning builds capacity, retains quality teachers, and transforms school culture. Leave with tools and resources to implement a teacher leadership project that develops collective professionalism.

How can we engage an entire school community to promote and sustain a strong building culture/climate? Gain understanding of the significant difference between engagement and involvement--schools excel at involving families in the basic details, yet struggle with the understanding of how to engage them effectively and efficiently. Leave with strategies to begin changing the concept of engagement in your schools.

Explore how creativity and movement can be used to manage emotions and discover the kinesthetic dimension of empathy. Identify how feelings impact the way people work and collaborate with one another. Address the importance of whole-school of social emotional learning and its relationship to fostering safe and supportive learning environments. Leave with strategies for utilizing creative expression as an emotional management tool in schools, classroom and communities in order to create safe and supportive learning environments for all students.

Engage in the mission of Border Crossers to train and empower educators to interrupt patterns of racism and injustice in schools and communities. Enhance your understanding of how race and racism manifests in classrooms, schools and the experiences of students. Practice applying a racial equity lens to scenarios related to race and racism in the classroom. Leave with strategies for creating racial equity in your classrooms and schools.

How can schools develop anti-racist educators and culturally responsive school-wide systems that help students of color access their education equitably? Discuss how systemic racism and other forms of oppression undermine efforts in schools and how to combat these realities inside and outside the classroom. Focus on asset-based thinking that empowers students to overcome obstacles in school and beyond. Leave with action steps for developing a more positive culture around race and equity in schools.

Do you have pockets of innovation that you want to support? How can you support a growth mindset and culture of innovation from the classroom to the district office? Examine research and practical stories of districts from coast to coast supporting a culture of innovative practice, of building capacity across districts, and scaling professional learning. Learn the 7 steps to support staff, educate the community, and redefine learning. Leave with strategies to support teacher trailblazers leading the way in your school or district. 

Explore ways to develop collective efficacy in schools. Dig deep into case studies and implementation tools that support the implementation of transparent teacher practices: learning walkthroughs, lesson study, collaborative coaching, peer coaching, and video analysis. Leave with a plan to employ Transparent Teacher Practices in your own unique settings.

Experience the journey of an urban Texas district from a “one size fits all” approach professional development to a differentiated, professional learning system grounded in Learning Forward's Standards for Professional Learning. Experience insights and wisdom gained on the journey coupled with replicable strategies for a strengths-based, integrated team approach to professional learning systems. Chart your course to scalable, sustainable and effective professional learning systems! Leave with a fresh mindset for the role of professional learning teams created through the lens of innovation.

Learn how educators continuous strive to enhance and advance student thinking in all curricular realms. Understand, discover, and assimilate a process that transforms learning beyond engagement to a powerful mindset of thinking. Launch Thinking Routines to unlock the power of authentic formative assessment while creating meaningful learning. Leave with a plan to build teacher capacity to increase rigor by unpacking thinking--yours and your students.

When implementing a new initiative, why do some teachers excel while others merely comply? Learn how to use Differentiated Coaching by understanding your own approaches to teaching and learning and how they impact students. Take the first steps toward teacher-centered and student-centered coaching by understanding the research and factors necessary to engage all students in high-level thinking. Leave with steps you can use to improve implementation of high-level tasks and to coach others in doing the same.

Learn how to create a framework that incorporates multiple opportunities for regular and consistent professional learning experiences for teachers and intentional designs to increase student performance. View content-based co-planning sessions, school-wide teacher-led study groups, instructional staff meetings, and targeted professional learning sessions. Examine a variety of structures that will positively impact student achievement and promote a culture of collaboration. Leave with an understanding of how a multi-layered organization that promotes congruence between teacher collaboration and student achievement can be developed to meet the needs of the school community.

Engage in systems coaching, a job-embedded approach to developing the capacity of school and district teams implementing Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). Learn how districts have designed professional learning plans and systems coaching practices to facilitate school improvement. Practice using a tool to inform the design, delivery, and evaluation of systems coaching at the individual, school, and district levels. Take away various resources, tools, materials, and planning documents to facilitate job-embedded systems coaching at your school or district.

Empower teachers to move beyond standards and accountability through transformative professional learning. Examine tools and practices to support teachers as they transition from isolated status quo practitioners to collaborative innovators. Engage in collaborative experiences to transform learning cultures.

Creating an instructional playbook (a concise description of teaching strategies that coaches can share with teachers to help achieve goals for students) is vital in making instructional coaching more effective and transparent. Examine the process in Jim Knight’s The Impact Cycle and review a model playbook. Learn to create a playbook to meet the needs of teachers and students in schools. Leave with an awareness of how to effectively share playbook strategies with teachers.

Build social emotional learning (SEL) content knowledge outside of programs and canned curriculum using current research, SEL data and intersecting disciplines. Learn how to use student voice data to inform SEL strategies. Define SEL in the context of teaching and learning. Leave with SEL strategies and practices to support SEL implementation efforts.

Learn how a large, urban school district implemented a systemic approach for developing and supporting a comprehensive professional learning plan. Explore how the professional leaning office engaged in a collaborative process to identify the multi-year goals of professional learning aligned to our strategic plan by identifying key data points. Analyze implementation data and early outcomes of the professional learning program and discuss takeaways and lessons learned from implementation.

Once you decide to implement video coaching within professional learning, what will teachers record? How will the coaches facilitate professional learning? This session will examine protocols for facilitating productive conversations in a virtual context and offer concrete strategies for designing video learning cycles. Participants will leave with the building blocks for taking action and transferring field-tested ideas into their own context. This session will draw on content from the recent book Evidence of Practice: Playbook for Video-Powered Professional Learning.

Learn how Open Educational Resources (OER) are changing how we use instructional materials for teaching and learning, as well as transforming teacher collaboration. Discover the benefits of the transition to OER that can lead to a more focused curriculum, powerful teacher collaboration, and increased equity to improve student learning. Leave with resources to begin your own OER transition.

Learn how Oak Ridge Schools' middle school science teachers engaged in a 2-year process to co-design a STEM project-based learning curriculum. Explore the development process, analyze a unit, and determine what constitutes high quality project-based learning. Leave this session with clarity on how you can impact your system by collaboratively developing your own rigorous, STEM project-based learning curriculum through a design-based research approach.

Saying that schools days are hectic is an understatement, and saying that job-embedded professional learning is always practical isn't true. Learn how Olentangy's schools have retooled their approach to job-embedded professional learning by re-examining what is practical for teachers. Review focused and concise tools that are more likely to transfer into the classroom. Examine how teacher toolbelts have translated theory into practice. Leave with ideas and a process for creating job-embedded professional learning opportunities that are practical for your teachers.

Investigate the shift in mathematics instruction to an increased focus on conceptual understanding and problem solving. Examine guiding principles to inform mathematics instruction. Discover ways to support teachers in moving their instructional practice forward in a meaningful way. Leave with an action plan to support teachers in moving their instructional practice forward in a meaningful way.

Join other affiliate leaders and interact with Learning Forward's Board of Trustees and senior staff members. Gather new information and share ideas with your fellow affiliate leaders. Lead you affiliate in advancing the Learning Forward vision, mission, and strategic priorities in your state or province.

How can systems attain profound impact on student achievement by ensuring that  principals continuously learn? With a solid foundation of Learning Forward's Standards for Professional Learning and the change process, learn to engage principals in communities of practice to enhance and grow their craft. Walk away with ideas of ways to identify problems of practice across campuses, facilitate the learning together and build collaboration for improvement and growth for all.

How can we embrace the convergence of the need for change and the opportunity to take action? Learn to reimagine learning for both students and adults so they can thrive in turbulent, complex times. Explore a Deep Learning Framework that provides a pathway for transforming the culture of learning and includes: a set of six global competencies essential for human connection in a digitized world; four elements that combine to foster deep learning experiences; and tools to assess the quality of school/district conditions that propel deep learning. Leave with knowledge from tools, protocols, video and vignettes from seven countries you can use to unleash a powerful learning culture.

Learn from Hawaii's Department of Education, sponsors of "Na Kumu Alaka'i - Teacher Leader Academy" to provide guidance for academic coaches, mentors, department heads and team leaders, who in turn engage and empower peers to support learner achievement. Explore Hawaii's "Leadership Competencies" used to develop programming and support for leaders in Hawaii's schools. Engage in collaborative exercies used to build teacher leaders' skills and traits. Leave with an understanding of the importance Hawaii places on teacher leaders and their contributions to school, staff and student success. 

Building relationships is the work of every adult in a school system focused on people and living out its mission of continuous improvement. Develop the skill of rounding by using a protocol, practicing rounding conversations and working with a coach. Take home three tools and the skill of rounding and connect the heart and mind of your daily work.

How do principals play a pivotal role in supporting teacher learning in the spirit of reciprocal accountability? Hear from the authors of the new book, Leading for Professional Learning: What successful principals do to support teaching practice. Learn about key frameworks and practical tools designed to guide leaders’ work in observation, determinining the need, sponsoring and following up on teacher professional learning. Leave with an analysis of your existing professional learning leadership practice in relation to a middle school case study that identified how the school principal successfully supported teacher learning.

Gain practical skills necessary to successfully implement leadership program structures in your district. Learn how one district is shifting the focus from agenda driven meetings and top down leadership to goal oriented learning for leaders and collaborative capacity building. Explore the three tiered Aspiring Leaders Institute developed to grow leaders from within the district. Leave with practical ways to integrate these structures into your practices to see student results improve.

Learn from Hampton City Schools (HCS) district leaders about their journey in creating a Teacher Leadership Professional Learning series. Explore learned lessons and how this learning is aligned with HCS's mission, vision and strategic plan. Analyze the definition of a teacher leader, the components of the teacher leadership process, and the TL roles, competencies, and standards. Leave with a plan to implement or expand teacher leadership professional learning in your own district.

How can schools be transformed by reconfiguring the business improvement cycle for educational entities? Learn how to use the PEER model to implement effective, continuous school improvement that engages the entire school in personalizing, applying, and evaluating initiatives outlined in the School Improvement Plan. Leave with knowledge of what the PEER model for school improvement offers educators to transform schools.

Learn how a partnership among a school district, university, and non-profit can transform education preparation programs so that teachers and administrators learn to lead collectively for school improvement. Explore the research basis for collective leadership, how improvement science fuels organizational learning across diverse and often siloed sectors, and how and why CTQ, Florence School District 1, and the University of South Carolina forged their partnership. Leave with strategies to improve outcomes for P-12 students by building coalitions to transform education preparation programs.

How do you transform a district from a system of schools to a school system with common vision? Engage with the research, process and professional learning used by one district to move towards Authentic Literacy as one community. Explore how you can eliminate the distractions while moving toward a singular united focus. Leave with ways to eliminate the distractions in your organization, working toward a singular focus.

Learn how to set conditions to support changed teaching/assessment practices through effective learning communities. Examine how school leaders select effective resources, communicate, and use facilitation skills to leverage relationships/interpersonal skills to impact deep learning for students and faculty. Learn to use global competencies (i.e. collaboration, critical thinking, innovation and creativity) to spark teacher engagement in their own deep learning and support 21st Century learning for their students. Leave with strategies to support learning for school leaders and faculty that impact positive student achievement. 

Learn how regional learning communities bring together single subject teachers from small and rural districts in Northeast Florida to collaborate, problem-solve, and create. Using data collected and analyzed, explore how these communities have used the transformative learning theory, Learning Forward's Standards for Professional Learning, and principles of teacher leadership to increase motivation and self-efficacy, improve retention, and ultimately increase student achievement on state summative assessments. Take away strategies to empower teachers through quality, differntiated professional learning.

Gain a deeper understanding of millennials, the largest generation to emerge in the workforce since baby boomers. Focus on how to recruit, hire, train and retain millennials. Explore what motivates this generation, how to encourage them, and how to address their professional development needs. Leave with characteristics of millennials to help you understand their work place needs.

Engage with members of Learning Forward's Student Success Learning Network to explore their use of the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles and implementation science to solve problems of practice. Learn from one team that is working together to build a three-dimensional view of how to support students who traditionally underperform in Algebra I. Leave with ideas for strategically testing interventions that lead to greater student learning.

How can professional learning communities leverage both educator and nonprofit skills and knowledge to close academic and opportunity gaps? Learn how this powerful model engages the social sector as a key player in improving student outcomes, especially in the fields of out-of-school time and social and emotional learning. Examine the process to transform marginalized communities using collective impact, collaborative leadership, equity, evidence-based interventions and data-mindedness within a tiered professional development model. Leave with knowledge from lessons learned and information on how to replicate successful learning communities.

Explore a multi-level framework for interpreting the functioning of a learning community that extends and enhances the work of experts in the field. Learn how the framework uses an innovative and nuanced approach to capturing complex relationships and learning within a community. Observe how the multi-level framework can provide invaluable insight into your own learning communities. Leave with knowledge to help you ensure your learning communities are working effectively.

How can all schools prepare a high-performing collaborative team to drive a productive learning culture where conflict is used for growth and breakthroughs? Observe three types of conflict present in the classic film and make connections to conflict present in collaborative teams today. Explore techniques of consensus building among a group of men whose diverse personalities create intense conflict. Learn from an interactive session that highlights how teams face and overcome similar challenges to collaborate and succeed. Take away high-leverage best practices associated with effective collaborative teams.

What learning design are you leveraging to provide teachers access to learning that reaches beyond traditional settings and allows them the opportunity to engage in "real-world" experiences that will enrich the classroom-to-career connections for students? Learn how Plano Independent School District (PISD) partners with the Plano Mayor's Summer Internship Program and Capital One to offer the Teacher Externship Program. Explore unique professional learning opportunities for PK-12 grade teachers in collaboration with local partners in business and industry. Leave with the key concepts to implement an externship program in your community.

Explore the design and facilitation of adult learning in order to gain a deeper understanding of how adults learn best. Discover brain-compatible, practical strategies and innovative ideas for designing and tailoring purposeful meetings and learning experiences. Engage theory and practice by gaining valuable tools for connecting audiences to you, to each other, and to important content. Leave compelled to take informed action to connect audiences to each other, as well as to dynamic content.

Hear from district leaders about a mentoring program that supports new teachers through their third year in the classroom. Learn about the assigned roles, responsibilities, and practices that promote continuous learning in their district. Leave with knowledge to build or adapt your mentoring and induction program to support new teachers to thrive in their first years and beyond.

Learn how one Utah public charter school enhanced their professional growth program with job-embedded, classroom-focused micro-credentials. Observe how teachers at the Weilenmann School of Discovery embraced Micro-Credentials as a way to supplement their prescriptive professional development and personalize their individual learning plans. Hear teacher testimonials about how this new approach to professional growth has made a difference in the classroom and in overall job satisfaction. Take away applications for micro-credentials in your organization.

What is the coach's role in assessing impact on the school, the coaching program, and, ultimately, an individual's development? Reflect on how you currently self-assess your impact on student learning in your school. Participate in a reflective process to build a self-evaluation tool. Leave with a draft of your coaching performance standards.

The design of professional learning matters in meeting needs of today’s educator. This session shares how integration of social media spaces, a daily blog, and podcasts can come together to ensure timely access to relevant content and flexible learning space to promote multiple modalities for engagement. Come learn, apply, and try out how to use a blog and podcast to provide educators with new learning and structures to move their practice forward.

Analyze the current ELL demographics in schools in the US and discuss best practices to develop oracy (ability to express oneself in and understand spoken language). Discuss oracy strategies to help these students develop the language they need. Learn the benefits of Restorative Practices, the growing approach to building school climate and addressing student behavior. Leave with tools and resources to explore implementation on your campus/district.

How are teachers building common language around the complexity of the standards they are teaching? Examine Marzano's process for developing Learning Scales in order to build effective differentiated lesson plans and build common language among your team. Learn how this process supports teachers in practice and administrators in providing meaningful feedback around the rigor of lessons they are observing. Leave with the coaching language that can support teachers in being successful in this process.

Learn about the various levels of the SAMR model through a hybrid learning approach which combines collaboration opportunities, digital and face to face content to create engaging learning environments while personalizing instruction. Rotate through a station rotation model which includes an independent station, a collaborative station and a direct instruction station to take a closer look at and deepen your understanding of the SAMR model. Leave with examples of how a hybrid learning approach can personalize instruction to meet the needs of learners.

Do you want to be in charge of your own learning? Learn how two campuses partnered to create their own learning system focused on authentic learning strategies to improve coaching practice. Consider complexity in educational practices by examining leadership strategies that drive change at the building level. Leave with an understanding of how to engage and lead your staff, encourage teacher leadership, and develop a strong learning culture and climate.

Learn how Real-time eCoaching provides immediate feedback during instruction, creating a beneficial feedback loop based on in-the-moment strengths and needs. Examine the coach-teacher-student feedback loop that is unique to real-time eCoaching. Explore high-tech and low-tech options for using real-time eCoaching as an innovative professional learning strategy. Leave with potential benefits and barriers to real-time eCoaching in your educational settings.

Districts are being asked to do more with fewer resources. Learn how two very large urban districts, one in West Texas, the other in South Texas, are partnering with the New Teacher Center to leverage existing teacher leadership roles to accelerate the development of new and veteran colleagues. As you consider their experiences, assess your current investments in teacher leaders, set priorities, and identify next steps.

Learn how competency-based education (CBE) is providing a transformational model of learning for students, teachers, and administrators in Iowa. Review 10 Key Characteristics for CBE based on 5 principle shifts in the areas of student agency, curriculum, instruction, assessment, and learning environment. Gain an in-depth understanding of each of the five principles in CBE and how school leaders take initial steps towards implementing this transformational education system. Leave with a greater understanding for how CBE supports career and college ready graduates using gateway learning progressions.

Yet another meeting? Collaborate, share resources, request help and so much more without ever attending another meeting. Learn how a blended learning community using Google Classroom is crucial and beneficial for teachers!  Establish an inclusive, effective culture of learning and collaboration with this free tool. Leave with a plan to use Google Classroom in your school to create a community for professional learning!

How can teacher professional learning support the complex skills students need to succeed in the 21st century? Gain insights about the elements of effective teacher professional development and consider strategies for infusing evidence-based practices in your own contexts. Leave with resources to structure evidence-based preparation and professional learning experiences for teachers to facilitate thinking and action that extends beyond the session.

Learn how one district’s Professional Learning and Assessment and Accountability departments partnered to design a needs assessment protocol for professional learning. Gain practical knowledge regarding the use of protocols for intentional development of professional learning, including content and tools for measuring impact. Walk away with a sample data review protocol that you can use to identify teacher learning needs and determine professional learning priorities.

How can we design transformational experiences on our campuses by listening? Existing school and district decisions are structured to address needs, but every school is different. Explore a new way to listen to your students, parents, and stakeholders to create solutions for your school and community. Leave energized to keep a pulse on your community’s needs and design an authentic learning environment for all learners.

 Join this session to learn how the Kansas State Department of Education Early Childhood, Special Education, and Title Services team helps educators at district- and building-levels to build the skills to implement evidence-based practices. Learn how the state team uses a cascading logic model to align efforts and support sustained change in districts. Discuss how the cascading logic model can be used to identify system-level supports to in your ow setting.

English learner students often need more literacy support in a math classroom. Hear from two English-learner math teachers about strategies for engaging a wide range of students. Learn how to design learning plans that adjust current curriculum to be more inclusive of different language levels, math abilities, and global perspectives. Deepen your understanding of how the strategies of formatting and framing can create successful opportunities for students in math.

Educators are obligated to provide students with a technology-rich environment that reflects the world and provides personalized learning opportunities. Join us to learn how one district transformed teaching and learning by using the lens of innovation to focus on a new vision of professional learning. Hear about the FOCUS 2020 technology initiative and how a community of learners engaged in meaningful professional learning during the transition to a 1:1 environment. Walk away with ideas for developing and evaluating similar professional learning experiences in your own schools. 

To build a pipeline of highly qualified aspiring school leaders, districts need mentor principals who are skilled in coaching competencies. Join this session to develop a greater understanding of mentor-principal professional learning needs. Learn how to leverage a district-university partnership to meet these needs and hear about the design and evaluation of coaching PD from university and district collaborators. Walk away with a comprehensive, effective approach to mentor-principal professional learning and support.

Engaging with active, happy parents at school can be an amazing experience for both families and teaching staff. How can we encourage parents to have be active involvement in a school community? Attend this session to explore ways to increase parents' enthusiasm and excitement about volunteering in the school community. Learn with other participants how to create a responsible, motivated parent leader who will encourage others to succeed. Invite your parents to become involved with the school to support learning for all students.

While much has been written and suggested about the changes that should take place in schools, the professional culture of schools has remained static. Join us as we engage in a dialogue about ways in which we made changes that engaged teachers in authentic professional inquiry experiences and disrupted typical professional development structures in our settings. See how these initiatives helped teachers enhance their understanding of students, learning, and teaching practices.

Take the lead in school reform. Learn what the education community—those representing teachers, principals, superintendents, school boards, parents, counselors, teacher educators, school public relations professional, and technology educators—agrees is needed for schools to be successful based on the Learning First Alliance compendium The Elements of Success: 10 Million Speak on Schools That Work. Discuss how you can use this information in your own school improvement and advocacy efforts.

Barriers to collaboration among teachers are real—an unfortunate truth when juxtaposed against research showing that teachers and feeders who collaborate increase student opportunities to learn. How can we foster a spirit of collaboration within and across a feeder system of culturally diverse schools? Join us to consider a process that begins with identifying the intended outcome and purpose for collaboration. Then, evaluate current models of professional learning at the building- and district-level systems.

This session investigates a study of preservice teachers’ perceptions of urban schools. Hear researchers discuss preservice teachers' changes in beliefs and attitudes toward urban schools after their urban field assignments. Join us to consider implications of these findings for teacher preparation programs and strategies for preparing students to teach in urban schools.

Add your voice to an open discussion with other participants and build your capacity in teaching practice. Analyze the chosen teaching strategies and measure the impact those strategies make on student growth. Understand how to incorporate accomplished teaching practices and create or refine a reflection process that lets your teacher learning team determine next stepst to meet the needs of all learners.

Use games and role-play to help non-native speakers of Chinese to gain a deeper understanding of the composition of Chinese characters. Learn how to reach reluctant students, create a fun learning experience, and improve learning outcomes. In addition, learn how using these strategies may bridge the gap between teaching and learning while giving students prompt feedback they can use to correct themselves. 

Learning does not happen in isolation for students or for teachers. In this session, simulate how teachers and students at the intermediate level collaborated to analyze their data, come to a common understanding about student expectations and ensure positive learning outcomes for all students.  Experience a collaborative learning model and take away new learning for application in your own school.

Learning how to use a library of analytic visuals will give educators, especially school administrators, tools they can use to make sense of data collected at the school-, department- or teacher level. Join this session to construct dashboards that let users analyze what is happening in classrooms; make learning visible by viewing standards alignment, evidence of student learning, failure rates, and depth of knowledge. Use data to address needs of student subgroups as well as to monitor compliance, growth, and reward teacher improvement.

NOTE: Session presenters and topics have been updated 9/20/2018

Learn how Broward County Public Schools launched a comprehensive online professional learning initiative to support the development of district and school-based equity plans that provide equitable opportunities for all. Understand how BCPS leverages online tools to support Equity Liaisons who promote culturally responsive teaching, bias reduction, and create relevant solutions to address opportunity gaps and persistent educational disparities based on race, ethnicity, language, religion, or gender orientation.

Micro-credentials are a new professional learning strategy grounded in competency-based education. Earners of micro-credentials demonstrate mastery of discrete skills in an online learning platform supported by coaches and peers. Learn how micro-credentials can provide on-demand, content-specific professional learning for educators and address gaps in your district's professional learning offerings.

Change is hard, but it's worth it. Part of change and transformation, especially in education, is focusing on our own educator professional development. This focus is true at every level, including administrators. Welcome to the Administrator's Technology Toolkit. Learn about the iTunes U course that was created as a reference tool that allows you to learn at your own pace.

Learn about principles and practices used by technology instructional coaches to design and facilitate the integration of one-to-one mobile technologies into K–12 teacher professional learning experiences; consider perceived changes in teachers’ practices and attitudes. Recognize how principles of andragogy (adult learning) and the Technology, Pedagogy and Content Knowledge (TPaCK) Framework influence teachers’ professional learning. Discuss a recent qualitative study and be able to apply practical knowledge learned from the findings in your own school or district educational technology plan to support educator performance.

Discover how augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) technologies inspire curiosity, create engagement, and deepen understanding of difficult, complex STEM concepts. Learn how AR/VR enables experiential learning through student-centered activities that supplement and align with existing K-12 and Career and Technical Education (CTE) curriculum. Discuss research outcomes and share classroom-based successes and challenges of integrating AR/VR to enhance K-12 learning.

When people talk about social media do you feel lost or disconnected? With social media usage continuing to grow and playing a more significant role in schools, educators need to be social media-savvy. Practice effective digital communication strategies and share your learning using popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat. Discuss the latest trends, usage behavior and demographics, and best practices for each social network.

NAF’s professional learning program builds the capacity of academy teams to create personalized environments that promote career-theme courses integrating curriculum through project-based learning and work-based learning including career awareness, career exploration, and career preparation. Learn how NAF effectively maintains connection among a national network through site visits, site-based professional learning, as well as digital tools including webinars, training videos, and video-conferencing to deliver technical assistance and personalized training sessions.

From twitter chats to book studies, learn how Chesterfield County Public Schools is uniquely positioning digital professional development resources to meet district and individual goals. Discover how this translates into using online instructional materials to increase equity and support student achievement. Hear how you can accomplish all of this and more by enacting six tips for success.

What does it take to create compassionate, creative, literate citizens who will improve our world? Literacy is the gateway and third grade is the key. Learn about a community-wide commitment to 90% literacy by third grade.Hear how parents, schools, philanthropists and community leaders embrace the power of literacy to transform lives. Leave energized to review the resources available in your community.

Learn how the Learning Forward Kansas video series, Inspired to Learn: Kansas Stories can inspire you! The series is designed to be a set of tools that support educators on their professional learning journey. Each video targets specific topics around effective professional learning (including PL Standards) featuring Kansas educators sharing their expertise. A resource guide with engaging protocols accompanies each video. This project was supported by the LF Foundation.

The fear, enemy-mongering, and finger-pointing in our larger political culture is showing up in our schools. In a Southern Poverty Law Center survey of over 10,000 educators nationwide, 8 in 10 people reported heightened anxiety on the part of marginalized students and 4 in 10 had heard derogatory language directed at marginalized groups. This isn’t an accident. Our children are sponges, constantly absorbing the conversations and messages around them. Learn about four keys to creating inclusive, equitable schools. Be inspired to take action.

Meet other superintendents and share conference highlights, reflect on something you’ve heard or learned that changed your thinking. Discuss common themes among speakers or talk about an idea you might like to try implementing in your district.

Consider the changing roles and expectations for principals and assistant principals. Explore ways in which school-based leaders, such as principals and assistants, can facilitate school improvement. Join in a dialogue and share effective practices in this networking session.

Meet with other coaches and teacher leaders and share something you’ve learned at the conference that will impact your practice. Consider teachers’ roles in schools and districts and how best to advance teaching and learning. Share next steps you will take when you return to your school or district.

Join a discussion about the major issues facing the largest school districts. Focus on ways in which students learn across content areas, examine the link between professional learning and student achievement, or discuss the best way to deploy resources. Consider how to increase public awareness and understanding that adult learning needs leads to student success.

Engage in a networking session with your state or provincial education agency colleagues and build on each other’s expertise. Share successful strategies for implementing quality professional learning aligned to educator evaluation systems, the Common Core, and new assessments.

Learn how one district’s Professional Learning and Assessment and Accountability departments partnered to design a needs assessment protocol for professional learning. Gain practical knowledge regarding the use of protocols for intentional development of professional learning, including content and tools for measuring impact. Walk away with a sample data review protocol that you can use to identify teacher learning needs and determine professional learning priorities.

How can we design transformational experiences on our campuses by listening? Existing school and district decisions are structured to address needs, but every school is different. Explore a new way to listen to your students, parents, and stakeholders to create solutions for your school and community. Leave energized to keep a pulse on your community’s needs and design an authentic learning environment for all learners.

 Join this session to learn how the Kansas State Department of Education Early Childhood, Special Education, and Title Services team helps educators at district- and building-levels to build the skills to implement evidence-based practices. Learn how the state team uses a cascading logic model to align efforts and support sustained change in districts. Discuss how the cascading logic model can be used to identify system-level supports to in your ow setting.

English learner students often need more literacy support in a math classroom. Hear from two English-learner math teachers about strategies for engaging a wide range of students. Learn how to design learning plans that adjust current curriculum to be more inclusive of different language levels, math abilities, and global perspectives. Deepen your understanding of how the strategies of formatting and framing can create successful opportunities for students in math.

Educators are obligated to provide students with a technology-rich environment that reflects the world and provides personalized learning opportunities. Join us to learn how one district transformed teaching and learning by using the lens of innovation to focus on a new vision of professional learning. Hear about the FOCUS 2020 technology initiative and how a community of learners engaged in meaningful professional learning during the transition to a 1:1 environment. Walk away with ideas for developing and evaluating similar professional learning experiences in your own schools. 

To build a pipeline of highly qualified aspiring school leaders, districts need mentor principals who are skilled in coaching competencies. Join this session to develop a greater understanding of mentor-principal professional learning needs. Learn how to leverage a district-university partnership to meet these needs and hear about the design and evaluation of coaching PD from university and district collaborators. Walk away with a comprehensive, effective approach to mentor-principal professional learning and support.

Engaging with active, happy parents at school can be an amazing experience for both families and teaching staff. How can we encourage parents to have be active involvement in a school community? Attend this session to explore ways to increase parents' enthusiasm and excitement about volunteering in the school community. Learn with other participants how to create a responsible, motivated parent leader who will encourage others to succeed. Invite your parents to become involved with the school to support learning for all students.

While much has been written and suggested about the changes that should take place in schools, the professional culture of schools has remained static. Join us as we engage in a dialogue about ways in which we made changes that engaged teachers in authentic professional inquiry experiences and disrupted typical professional development structures in our settings. See how these initiatives helped teachers enhance their understanding of students, learning, and teaching practices.

Take the lead in school reform. Learn what the education community—those representing teachers, principals, superintendents, school boards, parents, counselors, teacher educators, school public relations professional, and technology educators—agrees is needed for schools to be successful based on the Learning First Alliance compendium The Elements of Success: 10 Million Speak on Schools That Work. Discuss how you can use this information in your own school improvement and advocacy efforts.

Barriers to collaboration among teachers are real—an unfortunate truth when juxtaposed against research showing that teachers and feeders who collaborate increase student opportunities to learn. How can we foster a spirit of collaboration within and across a feeder system of culturally diverse schools? Join us to consider a process that begins with identifying the intended outcome and purpose for collaboration. Then, evaluate current models of professional learning at the building- and district-level systems.

This session investigates a study of preservice teachers’ perceptions of urban schools. Hear researchers discuss preservice teachers' changes in beliefs and attitudes toward urban schools after their urban field assignments. Join us to consider implications of these findings for teacher preparation programs and strategies for preparing students to teach in urban schools.

Add your voice to an open discussion with other participants and build your capacity in teaching practice. Analyze the chosen teaching strategies and measure the impact those strategies make on student growth. Understand how to incorporate accomplished teaching practices and create or refine a reflection process that lets your teacher learning team determine next stepst to meet the needs of all learners.

Use games and role-play to help non-native speakers of Chinese to gain a deeper understanding of the composition of Chinese characters. Learn how to reach reluctant students, create a fun learning experience, and improve learning outcomes. In addition, learn how using these strategies may bridge the gap between teaching and learning while giving students prompt feedback they can use to correct themselves. 

Learning does not happen in isolation for students or for teachers. In this session, simulate how teachers and students at the intermediate level collaborated to analyze their data, come to a common understanding about student expectations and ensure positive learning outcomes for all students.  Experience a collaborative learning model and take away new learning for application in your own school.

Learning how to use a library of analytic visuals will give educators, especially school administrators, tools they can use to make sense of data collected at the school-, department- or teacher level. Join this session to construct dashboards that let users analyze what is happening in classrooms; make learning visible by viewing standards alignment, evidence of student learning, failure rates, and depth of knowledge. Use data to address needs of student subgroups as well as to monitor compliance, growth, and reward teacher improvement.

NOTE: Session presenters and topics have been updated 9/20/2018

Learn how Broward County Public Schools launched a comprehensive online professional learning initiative to support the development of district and school-based equity plans that provide equitable opportunities for all. Understand how BCPS leverages online tools to support Equity Liaisons who promote culturally responsive teaching, bias reduction, and create relevant solutions to address opportunity gaps and persistent educational disparities based on race, ethnicity, language, religion, or gender orientation.

Micro-credentials are a new professional learning strategy grounded in competency-based education. Earners of micro-credentials demonstrate mastery of discrete skills in an online learning platform supported by coaches and peers. Learn how micro-credentials can provide on-demand, content-specific professional learning for educators and address gaps in your district's professional learning offerings.

Change is hard, but it's worth it. Part of change and transformation, especially in education, is focusing on our own educator professional development. This focus is true at every level, including administrators. Welcome to the Administrator's Technology Toolkit. Learn about the iTunes U course that was created as a reference tool that allows you to learn at your own pace.

Learn about principles and practices used by technology instructional coaches to design and facilitate the integration of one-to-one mobile technologies into K–12 teacher professional learning experiences; consider perceived changes in teachers’ practices and attitudes. Recognize how principles of andragogy (adult learning) and the Technology, Pedagogy and Content Knowledge (TPaCK) Framework influence teachers’ professional learning. Discuss a recent qualitative study and be able to apply practical knowledge learned from the findings in your own school or district educational technology plan to support educator performance.

Discover how augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) technologies inspire curiosity, create engagement, and deepen understanding of difficult, complex STEM concepts. Learn how AR/VR enables experiential learning through student-centered activities that supplement and align with existing K-12 and Career and Technical Education (CTE) curriculum. Discuss research outcomes and share classroom-based successes and challenges of integrating AR/VR to enhance K-12 learning.

When people talk about social media do you feel lost or disconnected? With social media usage continuing to grow and playing a more significant role in schools, educators need to be social media-savvy. Practice effective digital communication strategies and share your learning using popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat. Discuss the latest trends, usage behavior and demographics, and best practices for each social network.

NAF’s professional learning program builds the capacity of academy teams to create personalized environments that promote career-theme courses integrating curriculum through project-based learning and work-based learning including career awareness, career exploration, and career preparation. Learn how NAF effectively maintains connection among a national network through site visits, site-based professional learning, as well as digital tools including webinars, training videos, and video-conferencing to deliver technical assistance and personalized training sessions.

Learn how schools and districts respond to appeals to expand access for students traditionally shut out of college-level courses such as Advanced Placement (AP). Gain knowledge of effective methods of improving access and success that have included teacher voice and leadership. Explore the practices of two diverse high schools that have achieved the dual goals of enrolling more students of color and low-income students in AP courses and increasing the percentage of students passing the associated exams.

Drawing upon a broad literature analysis, consider varied examples from multiple domains, including public education, that illustrate why and how a process we call Evolutionary Learning enables organizations to improve steadily and succeed. Achieving this progress entails new forms of both “governance” and “democracy” – i.e., new ways of (re)arranging internal operations and interactions with key staff, external stakeholders, and the public to to learn from carefully observed experience.

Come and hear how six diverse districts joined together in a national community of practice to examine how to evaluate the effectiveness of professional learning. The districts, a range of urban and suburban districts, from Massachusetts to Oklahoma, participated in the study to learn with and from each other as they engaged in an evaluation of a professional learning program. Join us to examine evaluation of professional learning initiatives from these diverse districts to identify multiple data sources and types.  Deepen your understanding of the lessons learned from the collaborative study evaluation and consider how to apply the lessons learned within your own district. 

The Learning Forward Standards for Professional Learning are the keys to high quality professional learning that results in student achievement. Learn how to use the Standards Assessment Inventory2 (SAI2) and Standards Into Practice: Innovation Configuration Maps for Standards for Professional Learning to introduce PL standards to leadership and faculty and assess the current level of implementation of the PL standards in your school or district. In table groups, analyze actual electronic SAI data and collaborate on either school- or district-level planning decisions based on the SAI data. Refine you data into a school or district continuous improvement plan and deepen your understanding of how to guide leadership and faculty through the design of standards-based, sustainable, long-term school and district improvement plans.

This workshop will introduce The Guide for White Women Who Teach Black Boys, which was created to support White teachers in their search for opportunities of personal growth as educators and the academic achievement of their Black male students. Using sections of the Guide and video viewing throughout the three-hour workshop, engage in concentrated, focused inquiry about relationships with Black male students and the impact of race and racism on those relationships. Raise specific questions among participants and share responses; close by setting short- and long-term goals in a personal and professional action plan.

In this three-hour interactive session, join us to explore how our frames of reference and personal lenses affect our perceptions and interpretations in classrooms and schools as you identify potential strengths and areas for growth in racial literacy. In small groups discuss behaviors that promote or inhibit meaningful dialogue that may lead to creation of cultures of learning that support racial literacy, promote social justice activism, and equity. Construct learning experiences that facilitate racial literacy across grade levels and explore the concepts of power and privilege. Finally, construct an action plan to promote a classroom culture of advocacy and change at your own site.

Learn how a district intentionally designs opportunities to nurture school-based mentor-leaders as reflective, equity-minded practitioners, meeting the academic and social needs of learners and inspiring novice teachers. Investigate a replicable model of collaborative inquiry, guided reflection and digital documentation of learning to uncover personal bias and deepen understanding of culturally responsive practices. Examine how the design of professional learning affects mentors’ mindsets and professional practice to support novice teacher efficacy.

Students and educators report high levels of stress every day! Stress can weaken our immune system and impair executive functions, such as the ability to pay attention, regulate our emotions, and think flexibly. In this session, explore how various student and educator stressors impact teaching and learning, dig into research on the mind-body connection, and learn effective strategies that enable us to respond rather than react in stressful situations. Leave the session with additional strategies to foster healthy relationships and orchestrate a caring, kind, respectful learning environment that can minimize stress for students and educators.

Learn how to affect a school’s or a school system's thinking around their staff’s professional learning (PL). Share and challenge your theory of change about how schools adopt effective PL programs. In groups, you and other participants study a case to apply a design-thinking approach and use an improvement cycle to plan for a realistic and systemwide logic model.  Engage in a cooperative learning experience that links theory to practice as you might apply it in your own setting.

Experience a Cliff Notes version of the Learning Forward Academy! We have narrowed two-and-one-half years of learning into three hours to showcase our biggest takeaways and highlight the opportunities available for educators at all levels. In this interactive session, you will work other attendees in small groups to experience the professional learning processes and tools that teams learn to use in a full-length Academy session. You will develop and use KASAB and learn a process for creating a theory of change and logic model. You'll be able to map the relationship of the KASAB to the logic model and create a KASAB for your own site and district. Finally, identify desired outcomes to improve student achievement and explore ways to assess the impact of your own professional learning .

As districts seek to ensure all students receive high quality, standards–aligned instruction, teachers must be provided with high-quality and standards-aligned materials, as well as the support to implement those materials effectively. In this session, examine a professional learning model leveraging a Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle of continuous improvement used by several districts in Florida. Also examine how a robust, but practical data collection strategy can drive incremental and long-term adjustments. Consider how this model and subsequent lessons learned could be used to strengthen PLCs within your own school or district as well as the practical data collection strategy used to assess its success.

Most curricula are designed to promote student learning, but what if we also designed curricula to enhance teacher learning? Learn the features of educative curriculum, how it differs from typical fare, and how it can be a vehicle for school and district improvement. You'll have the opportunity to compare educative and non-educative curriculum, hear a teacher's experience with educative curricula, and try your hand at developing your own educative lessons.

This hands-on session fills in the mystery zone with specifics about the gap between 1) the known importance of strong adult professional culture for effective schools and 2) what leaders do daily to nurture that culture in a sustainable way over time. Explore in detail the 12 elements of strong adult professional culture through videos and role plays, then assess the cultures of your own organization. Through a series of interactive exercises, you and other participants create examples of leaders' daily behaviors that lead to the development of authentic relational trust. Finally, leave with a personal plan for implementing relevant parts of this workshop at your own site.

Written feedback is a powerful force. The choices that observers make prompt the readers of the feedback, the teachers, to deeply consider the feedback or discount it. In this interactive session, join other participants to examine an IC map and then view videos of a classroom situation and write feedback. During the session, go through several iterations of observing, writing feedback, receiving feedback on your feedback, and assessing all feedback using an innovation configuration map. Leave with a personal plan for writing and sharing feedback to improve your skills or practice. 

Negotiating the boundaries of teacher leadership that interrupts the status quo of an administrator/teacher hierarchy is tricky, but the benefits outweigh the difficulties. Teacher retention increases, professional learning ensues, and important research relationships with education research facilities develop. Come hear our story and learn how to build effective teacher-leadership teams and how that can translate into accomplishing great things on campus and across your district. Participants will walk away from this session with a plan for how to develop teachers into teacher-leaders, determine goals for a campus, turn those goals into actionable plans, and connect with larger research facilities to gain support, a stronger understanding of school/district data, and an outside perspective to help guide plans and goals. 

States and districts invest teacher and principal leadership initiatives to boost leadership capacity, educator retention, and educator effectiveness. Join this session with activities and a panel that offers an in-depth exploration of one effort—the SC Collective Leadership Initiative (CLI)—that works across leadership and professional learning systems to achieve coherence and impact. Discover how the SC Department of Education developed CLI, what they and schools are learning in the pilot, and principles that translate into growth for your school system.

Join this session to discuss the "why," "what," and "how" behind instructional leadership teams' applications of inquiry cycles to utilize the school's instructional priorities and school improvement goals to evaluate teacher practice and student achievement. In small- and large-group activities, reflect on the current structure of your school's instructional leadership team and consider how you may need to modify the current structure to support your school's instructional priorities. Learn about the inquiry cycle and practice using an appreciative inquiry protocol to conduct inquiry cycles for instructional leadership teams.  ​

FWCS has worked for several years to strengthen the instructional coaching community through an intense focus on building a community of practice. FWCS has adopted the theme that when coaches learn, teachers increase their effectiveness. Their work has focused on understanding the adult learner, their roles and responsibilities as coaches, the Standards for Professional Learning, as well as translating district curriculum priorities into practice. Most important, the communities continuously practice the essential skills of coaching. This session is designed to share the district’s strategies for developing a community of practice, the curriculum used to guide the learning of instructional coaches, and the results that the district is seeing as a result of their work.

Building a strong, lasting, positive culture for adult learning in schools takes strong leadership. Drawing from the research of Daniel Pink and Chip and Dan Heath, participants will learn how to utilize inspiration as a tool to lean in and lift up the people with whom they work. Join us in this interactive session to define and describe how inspiration can elevate a leader’s practice and motivate all types of adult learners to be accountable for their learning. With other participants, experience how to use Elevation, Pride, Insight, and Connection (EPIC) to purposefully craft lasting moments of inspirational learning and intentionally plan for EPIC moments embedded within professional learning experiences.

Learn how one district is transforming the way teachers collaborate to address a problem of practice within their school. Participate in an interactive cycle of inquiry using real-world data followed by a facilitated session in which you and other attendees predict, analyze, determine causal factors, and collaboratively create a plan of action for a real-world school problem of practice. Experience the process of using collaborative inquiry to create deep and lasting change within a building. Leave with strategies to build strong communities of practice and develop teacher leadership within your district.

We will demonstrate how to use a theory of change and logic model when implementing professional learning communities (PLCs) and the Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) process within a school setting. Join other participants to learn how to establish a PLC protocol that affords all teachers a framework in which to collaborate, informally and formally on a regular basis, about instructional decisions. Also, learn how to use PLCs to drive the PDSA process, a research-based cycle for increasing student achievement, and how to recognize the qualities of a good and bad PDSA cycle. Finally, learn ways in which you can increase stakeholder buy-in for PLCs in your own schools or districts. 

New learning models and systems MUST be designed with students in mind. In this session, you will rethink what educator learning should look like to support transformation and moving toward deeper learning through next generation educator learning. Dive deep into rethinking the how, why and what of professional learning, as well as the enabling conditions needed to move toward personalized/competency-based learning. Get started on design for your next generation professional learning system, with the development of early-stage prototypes.

Testing has come under fierce attack in recent years, but classroom assessments are at the heart of effective teaching and learning. When used as tools focused on student learning, these assessments are key to addressing troubling equity issues in schools. In this highly interactive workshop, explore nine ways that assessments are used by the most effective teachers to show progress, areas of need, and what’s working in classrooms. In small- and large-group discussions, deepen your understanding of the conditions that support successful application of all nine strategies. See how assessments, under those conditions, can drive continuous improvement, high levels of student learning, and reduction in the achievement gap.

By understanding clearly about the research base of Visible Learning and what impact Visible Learning can have on learning, K–12 teachers can consider its effectiveness in classroom teaching. Join us to learn about the major influences of Visible Learning in teaching and learning are as well as the effects size; and how to incorporate those influences into your practice delivered in a brain target teaching framework. By the end of this session,  prepare lessons for Visible Learning, analyze learning and feedback, and investigate your mind frame to understand how it is intrinsically linked to the principles of mind, brain and education science.

Data from the Gallup Organization demonstrate the connection between student engagement and achievement. If engagement is not evident, learning at high levels is much less likely. Examine various tools for measuring engagement and analyze a video of coaching interactions focused on engagement to understand how to coach teachers to build teacher capacity in increasing engagement. In addition, learn how to gather engagement data for defining and assessing engagement to have a powerful influence on student success. Leave with a draft a plan for addressing engagement back in your own school and district.

Leading states and districts are leveraging a powerful, yet under-examined, lever for improving student outcomes that is low cost and high impact: curriculum. There is emerging evidence that content-rich, standards-aligned, and high-quality curricula can powerfully influence student achievement. During this session, participants will learn about the strategies bold district and state education leaders are using to ensure high-quality standards are matched with high-quality and engaging instructional materials and meaningful teacher leadership opportunities that will lead to improved student outcomes.

The Brooklyn North High Schools (NYCDOE) have partnered with Learning Innovation Catalyst (LINC) to help teachers and students become  21^st century learners. Leveraging the research of Arnetha Ball (Stanford University), they are utilizing the Model of Generative Change to help create sustained classroom innovation and iteration. Learn how this professional learning approach is transforming educators while preparing students for the world they navigate today and will face tomorrow.

Experience the power of using student shadowing data as a source for making decisions for instructional changes. Practice coding students’ engagement using a student shadowing tool designed to track students’ academic language use. Engage in a small-group protocol for analyzing the shadowing data to determine next steps for professional learning and instruction.

The Center on Research and Evaluation (CORE) at Southern Methodist University is engaged in a multi-year partnership with key community stakeholders, including a large urban district, to utilize the CLASS™ tool to measure the quality of early childhood classrooms and provide actionable data to help drive instructional coaching and quality improvement. Hear members of the partnership discuss the evaluation design, theoretical underpinnings of measuring quality and student outcomes over time, and a district model for using continuous quality data to improve early childhood quality.

Examine how the design of multiple pathways for school-based administrators' learning ensures equity by providing high-quality, job-embedded professional learning that makes a positive impact on teacher growth and student achievement. Reflect on professional learning and examine ways to ensure that individual needs are met. Highlight the presence of equity in professional learning activities in your division and the impact of these opportunities on your system.

Explore the journey of educators in a large district in St. Louis, Missouri as they strive to achieve educational equity and excellence for students  academically and social emotionally. Learn more about how the identification of problems of practice, the development of theories of change, and the implementation of equity audits, along with a deep commitment to social justice and inclusive education, are moving one diverse district forward.

Come and join us in this highly engaging two-hour session as we explore how institutional racism affects our ability to achieve equity and racial justice in education. Examine the work that National Education Association is doing to advance racial justice in education. Deepen your understanding about how to use bias awareness and culturally responsive teaching to create equitable learning opportunities so that ALL students can achieve success.

Join us in this session, as we explore critical areas that affect students' literacy, such as: race, socialization, teachers' perceptions of their students, and text selections. Examine theories and research literature to make connections to the historical implications of race and schooling for African American students. Participate in inquiry about social justice, students' civil rights, and the institution of school and leave with pragmatic strategies to address the literacy needs of underserved populations.

Commit to the moral imperative of creating socially-just schools that educate all of our children in all of our schools. Learn how to constantly develop individual and collective knowledge and skills of cultural proficiency and civil discourse. Create honest dialogues using the Cultural Proficiency Continuum in tandem with the skills of pausing, paraphrasing, and posing questions to grow teachers and schools from the inside-out. Develop a plan to use civil discourse to build cultural proficiency in your school.

Learn how a large district in the Metroplex has incorporated student voice into facets of curriculum design, graphic design, teacher recruitment, and technology integration using a student group called Synergy. Examine cases of students working with teachers and administrators to create a future-ready curriculum that promotes technology and incorporates collaboration and reflective thinking using their voice for lessons of tomorrow. See how new-teacher hiring and induction also benefit from student input when students share their insight in guiding the district.

Learn how to leverage the Learning Forward Standards for Professional Learning to design and build an effective, systematic, and sustainable new teacher mentoring and induction program. Explore professional learning and coaching designs that support new teachers with a specific focus on effective instructional practice. Leave with understanding of key components and practices to increase teacher retention, teacher effectiveness and student achievement.

Hear how this IB World Schools District has used Innovation Configuration maps to guide effective implementation of various continuous improvement initiatives. Learn about the key components of an IC map, one of the diagnostic tools of the Concerns-Based Adoption Model. Understand how IC maps are collaboratively developed and utilized to communicate a clear vision. Develop a draft IC Map for one or more initiatives in your school or district.

It is never to early to begin nurturing students’ creativity and problem-solving abilities. In this session you will explore implementation of STEAM in the early grades including: planning, resources, coding in preK and Kindergarten, collaborating, equipping staff, standards alignment, lessons learned, and how to replicate STEAM at every level. Be inspired to transform your campus and empower your students and staff using STEAM experiences and challenges.

Supporting transformational innovation takes teamwork and sustained support. It is one thing to have everyone motivated, but it is another to have an entire organization passionately moving in the same direction with the same purpose. Come and hear about one middle school's journey to create a competency-based, student-centered learning environment. Such an innovation requires mindset and capacity-building but begins with visioning. Examine a case study of Belvidere South Middle School as staff move through the change process to create a student-centric learning environment. Take away tools, structures, and resources to apply and implement in your own local context.

Learn how the school support and improvement department of a large urban school district aligned its support of principals through the development of guiding principles and pivotal instructional leadership practices. Learn about the professional learning path that is leading to sustainable changes in leadership practice. Develop a plan to establish guiding principles and pivotal instructional practices that guide the development and learning of leaders at all levels of the organization.

Explore how a high school radically changed its culture and approach to leadership by applying the concept “go slow to go fast.” Review the Leadership Development Model and research-based strategies for group development used to transform teaching and learning in one school. Discover how taking the time to implement the right foundational structures and operational processes can lead to a transformation in virtually every aspect of a school by giving all stakeholders a voice, establishing collective responsibility for student achievement, building leadership capacity within a staff, and aligning everyone’s efforts. Walk away with tools, ideas, and strategies to create teacher-driven, sustainable change in your district.

Transform your school or district’s change process to make a positive impact on teaching and learning. Apply a change process model to guide your future decisions in the implementation of new initiatives and discuss in a collaborative group. Gain an understanding of change research and reflect on the obstacles and successes of past initiative implementations.

You’ve spent money on devices and tools, and hired instructional coaches, but how do you know whether their work is effective and makes a positive impact on teaching and learning? Using the lens of the Future-Ready Framework, learn from an in-district coaching practitioner effective ways to maximize pedagogical expertise, influence transformational teaching, and move the learning activities beyond digital worksheets and drill-and-kill applications. Coaches evaluate the impact on instructional practice and student learning by improving teacher pedagogical skills and increasing student learning. The “right blend” of instruction is found when experiences combine curriculum and technology through the “structured learning of information with collaborative discussions and project-based activities that allow students to use the information to solve meaningful problems or create their own products, both individually and collectively” (Darling-Hammond et al., p. 15).

Join this session to learn how a private education organization and a very large school district are working together to develop a five-year strategic plan for the district. Explore their unique cross-departmental approach to planning, including assembling a task force of internal and external stakeholders who work collaboratively to develop the plan. Participate with other attendees to take a deep dive into this approach and leave with the knowledge and tools to implement similar practices in your school or district.

We often think too narrowly about writing, associating it only with a stressful process connected to state testing or essays that English teachers assign. But, writing is thinking! Writing in every class strengthens students' abilities to process new information, clarify their thinking, and communicate clearly. Join this session to learn about strategies that help make writing in any content area less stressful and, more importantly, a part of the type of thinking that we want students to develop. Learn how to monitor and prioritize authentic student writing and align those writing tasks to goals for overall student improvement. Leave with an understanding about how to coordinate cross-curricular conversations about writing and create support systems for teachers who implement intentional writing opportunities.

This session is for Learning Forward Academy graduates. Hear from Stephanie Hirsh, Executive Director at Learning Forward and coach for Academy I and II. She will address the new interest in the application of improvement science in communities of practice and networks for systems and schools. She will also discuss how Learning Forward is looking to strengthen the alignment among curriculum, instructional materials, and professional learning (which was the focus of the Learning Forward Summer Institutes in Portland, Oregon). Stephanie will provide the evidence that informs her point of view, share useful protocols and resources, and answer questions from Academy graduates.

A powerful coach requires skill that is best developed by experiencing and observing coaching firsthand. Members of Results Coaching Global are providing the gift of coaching in a 1:1 setting. Give yourself time to explore your confidential goals and dreams. Imagine the possibilities: a goal made clear, a plan evolved, multiple solutions for a tough situation.

NOTE: This is a not a typical concurrent session and is offered as a service for conference participants. Session is limited to 12 participants.

Repeated as 2221, 2428, 3218, and 3414.

Build your administrative team’s circle of influence by engaging in candid and deliberate conversations about instructional leadership capacity, with an intentional emphasis on teaching practices and student learning. Highlight areas of strength and growth for professional development and share best practices. Plan walkthroughs to help leaders become more familiar with their school’s implementation of the adopted curriculum (including gaps and trends), teacher’s instructional practices, and their role as the instructional leader.

Join us in this session to learn about new options for letting teachers remain in the classroom while expanding their influence through alternative pathways in the district such as leading collaborative inquiry and co-teaching with novice teachers. Deepen your understanding about the reasons teachers leave the classroom and see how you can use that understanding to create options that motivate them to stay. Apply the lessons learned in this session to support your own work in providing coaching and teacher leadership opportunities that motivate teachers to remain in the classroom.

When student feedback is marked by high expectations, frequent iteration, and continuous support, conditions are set for more trusting and authentic learning communities. Learn how to design and deliver “feedforward” – a radical feedback approach that drives student creativity and ensures accountability for learning. Develop practical design strategies that foster creativity but ensure accountability and apply proven techniques that establish collective responsibility, authentic collaboration, and trust. Leave this session with an action plan to improve collaboration, communication, and personal responsibility in the problem-based learning classroom and beyond.

Accelerate the development of your school system by growing a collaborative and positive culture that engages adults and students at every level. Participate in several experiential activities to create a common experience and language related to the positive practices that can fuel team success. View several videos that illustrate the impact of this work on school cultures and submit questions in real time and receive practical answers. Deepen your understanding of the impact of positive psychology on the overall school culture and academic achievement, then begin to develop a systemic plan for collaboration within high-quality teacher teams that ensure student success.

Learn how a principal and coach partnered to adapt a school's learning community from one that was focused heavily on data teams to one focused on building and sustaining a culture of learning through multifaceted professional learning communities. Examine the systems, structures, and decisions that were key elements in shifting the focus. See how the focus on continuous learning has strengthened the staff's collective responsibility for both student and teacher learning.

Presenters will share how the Monitoring Our Evidence protocol empowers educators to make effective teaching decisions that are timely and relevant and make a positive impact on student outcomes. The strength of this continuous feedback model is its ability to change teacher practice because it focuses on both student and teacher metacognition. Leave with an understanding of effective methods for gathering evidence of thinking. See how this continuous cycle of collaboration and data collection creates a culture of learning in which all participants have shared ownership.

Curious about what it takes for a school district and nonprofit community partner to co-create and implement a comprehensive social and emotional (SEL) learning system? Join representatives from Dallas Independent School District and out-of-school time intermediary, Big Thought, as they share reflections and emerging learning from their first year implementing an aligned SEL system as part of The Wallace Foundation’s Partnership for Social and Emotional Learning Initiative.

Understand the foundational components of an authentic professional learning community (PLC). Practice strategies and techniques that accomplished facilitators use to lead, guide, and support the success of PLCs and its members. Identify lesson study and data teams as structures that PLC teams can use to increase teacher and student performance.

Do you link the adult learning of your leaders to the outcomes and organizational change you want to see? Have you assessed what leadership skills your leaders need to have a positive impact on outcomes for students? Join us as we share how we approached the identification of leadership competencies for our research-based leadership framework and professional learning for school system leaders.

Leveraging the Standards for Professional Learning and Powerful Designs, a very large suburban Illinois district redesigned professional learning to emphasize choice. The professional learning program transformed from a few workshops and instructional coaching into a model in which all staff have choices in their professional learning needs and relevant professional learning models. Join us to learn about the research and design process we used to personalize professional learning in our district and apply them in your school or district. 

Planning and launching a professional learning initiative at the district level can create a top-down perception that hinders buy-in. Learn how to plan for major initiatives through intentional collaboration with stakeholders from all levels of your organization. Leave with proven continuous improvement tools and protocols that we have used to initiate the work of developing a comprehensive professional learning plan, instructional framework, and teacher growth and evaluation model.

Research continues to highlight that formal teacher professional learning rarely reaches the classroom in ways that make an impact on student learning. Join this session to interact with the Center for Educational Leadership's (CEL) latest thinking about leaders' roles in fostering both culture and strategy for successful teacher learning. Use tools to analyze the culture for teacher learning in your system and strategize about next steps to address it.

Ignite your thinking about using evidence-based practices to transform the way teachers plan and deliver instruction in their classrooms. Using the groundbreaking collaboration among Doug Fisher, Nancy Frey, and John Hattie, take a deep dive into instructional strategies that work best in a three-phase model of instruction—surface, deep, and transfer learning. Explore ways to assist teachers in becoming more purposeful in designing and delivering lessons that have the greatest impact on student learning.

What is a good question? Or rather, how does a good question challenge students to demonstrate higher-order thinking (as categorized by Bloom's revised taxonomy) and communicate depth of knowledge (as designated by Webb's depth of knowledge levels)? Learn how to rephrase performance objectives into good questions that will build on students' background knowledge, set the instructional focus, and serve as assessments for deeper, student-centered learning experiences.

How often have you heard teachers say that the PD they want is “Practical strategies, modeled, with time to practice in the session and coaching feedback when we try things out in our classrooms”?  That description of teacher-centered learning and its application in the classroom is the subject of this session. Come and learn about the transfer of your own learning into the classroom to change your practice and increase your students' learning. Then you may hear your teachers say, “I wish you could have seen the motivation of the kids, and the results... beyond expectations." Come and experience; talk and transfer this critical session content to your teams.

The hardest part of learning new instructional strategies is finding the time to actually do the work of learning. The best learning takes place in peer groups. The school-by-design process has created up to a day a week of collaboration time. Join us to learn how to analyze your key resources (time, teachers, courses, students) and redesign your schedule so that you get better outcomes for kids and teachers. Leave knowing you can find significant time for teachers to work together (without sending the students home or increasing the budget) during this session.

Examine the current research around how video can be a powerful tool to support educator professional development and test out an online video platform. Experience specifically how Volusia Center for Excellence in Education (VCEE) uses video technology to support and train pre-service candidates. Learn the advantages of using video for coaching and mentoring, current best practices in the field, and how to overcome the challenges associated with this innovative technology.

Many initiatives to develop teachers’ practices struggle to move the needle on student outcomes. The problem is often not a lack of sound instructional approaches, but a failure to account for the actual progress that teachers are already trying to make in their lives and with their students. Learn how researchers at the Christensen Institute interviewed and surveyed teachers to understand why they adopt new teaching practices. Explore their “Jobs to be Done” theory, which informs four different jobs—or reasons—that motivate teachers to change how they teach.

What are the features and best practices of effective social and emotional learning (SEL) programs? How can they be planned and carried out well, both in school and out-of-school settings?  Researchers from Harvard’s EASEL Lab discuss the recommendations in the publication Preparing for Effective SEL Implementation, supported by The Wallace Foundation. Explore how to ensure sufficient staff support and approaches to dealing with logistical and budget challenges.

This interactive and engaging session will take participants on a deep dive into some of the key influences captured in John Hattie’s Visible Learning research. Learn how Visible Learning can serve as a compass ensuring instructional actions are having a positive impact on the growth and achievement of students. Instructional practices that support surface, deep and transfer learning will be highlighted, and participants will leave with strategies ready for implementation into their classroom the very next day.

Sponsored by Corwin

Efficacious teachers ensure that their students are assessment-capable, which means that students understand their current level of performance and compare that with the desired level of learning. Assessment-capable learners and their teachers select direct, dialogic, and independent learning approaches they know will help attain their shared learning goals. In this session, gain insight about the six pillars Assessment-Capable Learners (ACL) demonstrate, the conditions that best support how to develop ACL, and the pathway to high-quality and equitable learning experiences.

Sponsored by Corwin

It may seem overwhelming to turn a school around or implement change. Where to begin? At Solution Tree, we can help you face even the biggest challenges by breaking them down into manageable pieces, creating a clear plan, and supporting you throughout the implementation process. Join us for a panel discussion where educators reveal the dramatic transformations made possible when schools focus on building a culture of learning for professionals and for students.

Sponsored by Solution Tree

Under ESSA, school districts face increased pressure to demonstrate the impact of Title II-A funded professional learning. Learn how a collection of districts are using data on their professional learning to go beyond grant requirements. Discover practical strategies for building teacher buy-in and using formative data to power school improvement initiatives during the year.

Sponsored by KickUp, Inc.

Video has become a central tool in our district and school-based professional learning. In addition to video-enhanced instructional coaching, our district is using video in four distinct ways: lesson study, action research, video clubs, and peer observation. Come to hear (and see) how we've empowered teachers to drive PL using videos of their own teaching. Attendees will receive a copy of “Evidence of Practice” book on implementing video learning.

Sponsored by Edthena

Build out a professional development program for teachers that is sustained, intensive, data-driven, collaborative, classroom-focused, and job-embedded with micro-credentials, collaborative communities and more. In this session we’ll dig into what these best-practice terms from ESSA mean and how micro-credentials and other components of Frontline Professional Growth help you move your professional development program to this model that promotes teacher agency and engagement, develops internal capacity, and builds your district brand.

Sponsored by Frontline Education

Wouldn't you like to enhance your professional learning to improve results for students? If so, come and listen to a panel of award-winning educators who are moving the learning forward. Hear from panelists how they have written and received grants to change learning for all learners. Take what you learn and think about how you might write a proposal to support your professional learning.

Sponsored by the Learning Forward Foundation

Explore the advantages and challenges of becoming a Learning Forward Academy participants from 3 current academy members (LFA19). Do you have a problem you are struggling with in your current role? Do you have a desire to participate in a cycle of continuous improvement? Come hear how the Learning Forward Academy can walk you through the Standards Into Practice framework, Innovation Configuration Maps, and many other tools which can bring clarity and a researched based formalized process that will help you address that current problem, as well as future ones.

Sponsored by the Learning Forward Academy

New (added 9/12)

Classrooms across our nation are becoming more diverse – from large urban centers to small rural communities. Regardless of the type of diversity that teachers are experiencing (racial, ethnic, economic, language, sexual orientation, etc), they must be able to support the learning of all students. This interactive session will explore how teacher leaders can create and advocate for socially just/ equitable learning environments. Those attending this session will receive the revised Teacher Leadership Competencies which includes the new Foundational Competencies focusing on Diversity, Equity and Cultural Competence.

Sponsored by the National Education Association