Professional Development

To raise student achievement and keep pace with the evolving P–12 landscape, educators need tools and support to help them hone their practice. EDC serves as a partner in practice to all of those on the front lines of educational reform. We help P–12 teachers, administrators, and informal educators enhance instruction to improve learning outcomes. Co-designed and tested by educators, our professional development reflects current research, connects directly to practice, provides strategies to serve diverse populations of students, and features follow-up to sustain changes in practice and systems. Learn more about our professional development capacity in action:

Focus on Content and Practice
Online and Blended Professional Learning
Instructional Coaching to Improve Outcomes
Communities of Learners to Sustain Change
Alignment of Curricula, Standards, and Assessment

Focus on Content and Practice

To support educators, professional development must simultaneously cultivate deep content knowledge and build understanding of effective instruction. Our learning experiences engage participants in inquiry into the subjects they teach and the impact of their practices on student learning. Focusing on work with students, we build capacity to assess students’ needs, use data to ground and guide instruction, and draw upon research-based practices to enhance outcomes. A few of our initiatives:

Online and Blended Professional Learning

Professional development must allow for divergent starting points, learning styles, and daily realities. Our online and blended models provide an array of convenient, effective, and interactive learning experiences tailored to meet the needs and interests of learners. Working closely with schools, districts, and state departments of education, we build capacity to use technology to improve educators’ access to high-quality professional development. A few of our initiatives:

Instructional Coaching to Improve Outcomes

Instructional coaching has promise to support educators in improving student outcomes. Drawing upon research on effective professional development, our coaching model is intensive, sustained, and content-based. The focus is on engaging educators in reflecting on how their instructional practices affect students’ learning and achievement. Recognizing coaches’ key roles as facilitators of learning, we support their reflection and professional growth. A few of our initiatives:

Communities of Learners to Sustain Change

Bringing educators together to focus on instructional improvement can promote systemic change, as well as professional learning. We convene, facilitate, and promote the growth of learning communities that put rigorous content at the core of education and build a common vision of student success. To strengthen practice, we often connect teachers and administrators with colleagues outside of schools—researchers, university faculty, out-of-school program educators—to share perspectives and effective strategies. A few of our initiatives:

Alignment of Curricula, Standards, and Assessment

Schools and districts face a formidable task as they work to translate the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) into practice, adopt new assessments, and achieve alignment. We partner with local and state education agencies to design and deliver ongoing professional development that helps ease these transitions. A special area of focus is promoting the use of formative assessment to support student learning. A few of our initiatives:

We know that professional development in and of itself cannot meet all education reform goals. Learn about our complementary curriculum, research and evaluation, and technical assistance services.