Catalina Foothills School District

"Good teaching is not an accident...All effective teaching is the result of study, reflection, practice, and hard work. A teacher can never know enough about how a student learns, what impedes the student's learning, and how the teacher's instruction can increase the student's learning. Professional development is the only means for teachers to gain such knowledge."

"High-impact professional learning has three essential characteristics: (1) a focus on student learning, (2) rigorous measurement of adult decisions, and (3) a focus on people and practices, not programs."

"The primary goals for professional learning are changes in educator practice and increases in student learning. This is a process that occurs over time and requires support for implementation to embed the new learning into practices."

"For most educators, professional learning is the singular, most accessible means they have to develop the new knowledge, skills, and practices necessary to better meet students' learning needs."

"Because each of us can only see what we can see and know what we can know, we need other people in order to learn and develop. Collaboration is thus essential to both perspective taking and internal capacity development."

"In the context of professional learning, respect is conveyed when teachers are participants in, not merely consumers of, research and the professional learning that accompanies it."

"Change is based on learning, and the purpose of learning is to support change."

"Learning--like educational change and improvement--is an ongoing and never-ending process of discovery. As individuals and organizations, we are never done learning or growing."

"We are all high-potential. We all deserve to belong no matter our demographics, professional role, years of experience, learning style, or way of knowing."

"Situating professional learning within the content that teachers will use it and combining that with conceptual inputs that push the thinking further is a critical part of professional learning."

"Development is a personal, collaborative, and lifelong process, and every moment--every stage--matters and has value."