What This Means for Practitioners

This study confirms that well-designed curriculum, especially focused on addressing the specific language learning needs of ELL students, coupled with effective professional development that supports implementation of the curriculum improves student academic success for all students.

For practitioners of professional learning, the incorporation of research-based principles of professional development illuminates the significance of applying Learning Forward’s Standards for Professional Learning (Learning Forward, 2011) in the design and implementation of learning experiences for teachers.

• Specifically, researchers identify:
• Content and language development and content-specific, reform-oriented pedagogy as primary focus for teacher professional learning (Outcomes);
• Active engagement of teachers within the workshops (Learning Designs);
• Collective participation of the entire 5th-grade teaching team at each school to build coherence within instruction and content (Learning Communities and Outcomes);
• Duration over a school year (Implementation);
• Extended time for planning, exchanging ideas, and sharing resources and stipends for teacher participation (Resources);
• Teacher reflection related to implementation within and across schools (Learning Designs); and
• The engagement of district science curriculum leaders in designing and implementing the professional learning (Leadership).

What is unclear regarding the professional development is how data about teachers, students, and schools were used in the design and implementation of the professional learning (Data), how leaders at the school level were engaged in and supportive of the intervention (Leadership), and how teacher implementation was supported (Implementation).

Focusing teacher professional learning on developing content knowledge, language acquisition, and application of content-specific, reform-oriented pedagogical practices aligned with district curriculum and state standards increases student academic achievement on both the high-stakes state and researcher-developed assessments in diverse schools and school systems. Professional learning specifically designed and implemented for defined purposes, as demonstrated in this study, has positive effects on student learning.

Reference

Learning Forward. (2011). Standards for Professional Learning. Oxford, OH: Author.