It is upsetting to me any time I hear a policymaker talk about what a waste of money professional development is. For example, Arne Duncan cites the $2.5 billion a year in federal funds for professional development and mentions that when teachers hear that figure, they either laugh or cry (U.S. Department of Education, 2012). While Duncan’s stance has recently shifted to emphasize that professional development can be better and that we need more of it, staff in the Department of Education reference conversations with educators who complain that much of their professional development has failed to address the real challenges they face in schools. Policymakers also point to research studies that indicate particular professional development didn’t achieve its intended outcomes and thus declare it