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Contact: Joellen Killion
303-520-6790
joellen.killion@learningforward.org

Explore Standards for Professional Learning through Video

DALLAS—November 15, 2011—Learning Forward recently released three videos to enhance implementation of its newly revised Standards for Professional Learning. The standards were released in July, at Learning Forward's Summer Conference in Indianapolis, Ind. The videos feature experts in the field who provide their perspectives on the Leadership, Outcomes, and Resources standards and were developed with support from MetLife Foundation. Additional videos for the remaining standards will be released approximately every six weeks.

"The web-based videos supplement Standards for Professional Learning to assist educators to learn about the standards and to understand how professional learning contributes to increases in educator effectiveness and student results," says Executive Director Stephanie Hirsh. "The standards and the suite of implementation resources, both supported with grants from MetLife Foundation, offer policy makers and educators the guidance and criteria needed to plan, implement, and evaluate professional learning."

In the Leadership standard video, Mike Ford, superintendent of Phelps-Clifton Springs Central School District, N.Y. and former Learning Forward president, discusses three aspects of the Leadership standard:

  • Develop capacity for learning and leading;
  • Advocate for professional learning; and
  • Create support systems and structures.
"We've got to be able to provide a focus on professional learning within our schools," says Ford in the video. "We will never accomplish that which we need to accomplish which is greater performance for kids and closing that achievement gap if we don't create the capacity within our systems for learning of the adults to occur on a daily basis."

In the Outcomes standard video, Margarita Calderón, professor emerita at Johns Hopkins University, explains the importance of aligning outcomes with educator performance and student curriculum standards.

Calderón expresses, "What a school needs to do is to build coherence up and down and across everything — curriculum, students, teacher performance, educator performance — and align all of this in order for ensuring that there will be good student results."

In the Resources video, Dan Bickel, area administrator for elementary schools in Fort Wayne Community Schools, Ind., examines the critical need to prioritize, monitor, and coordinate resources in order to overcome inequities and achieve results for educators and students.

"In order for you to have a comprehensive aligned program of professional learning that actually gets at the key problems that the district faces or the schools face, you have to make sure you're maximizing the use of your resources," according to Bickel.

Learn more about the new standards at www.learningforward.org/standards, which includes video, the seven standards statements with explanations, information about ordering a hard copy of the standards, and much more.

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Download the PDF of this press release.

About Learning Forward
Learning Forward's purpose is ensuring that every educator engages in effective professional learning every day so every student achieves. Learning Forward is a nonprofit, international association of learning educators focused on increasing student achievement through more effective professional development. To learn more about the impact of high-quality professional learning, visit www.learningforward.org.

About MetLife Foundation
MetLife Foundation is committed to building a secure future for individuals and communities worldwide, through a focus on empowering older adults, preparing young people and building livable communities. In education, it seeks to strengthen public schools through effective teaching and collaborative leadership, and to prepare students for access to and success in higher education, particularly during the crucial first year. The Foundation's grantmaking is informed by findings from the annual MetLife Survey of the American Teacher. More information is available at www.metlife.org.