School systems nationwide spend an average of $7,700 on professional development every year, yet the impact on student outcomes remains unclear. As budgets become increasingly tight, what can we do to ensure that professional learning is more impactful and directly translates to positive change in the classroom?

Recently, Chong-Hao Fu, CEO of Leading Educators, joined Kareem Farah (Co-Founder and CEO of Modern Classrooms Project), Sarah Johnson (CEO of Teaching Lab), and Jessica Fredston-Hermann for “Professional Development: What Works, and What’s on the Horizon,” a timely webinar hosted by the Overdeck Family Foundation.

They explored the critical elements needed to make professional development more relevant, timely, and primed for tangible classroom impact. They also discussed how AI can offer new capabilities for scalable improvement.

We’re recapping key moments from the conversation right here! Watch the whole conversation on YouTube.

Takeaway 1: Leverage What’s Proven

Leading Educators’ approach to integrating AI into professional learning is grounded in our existing research on effective PD.

Our Tier 1 evidence in the What Works Clearinghouse demonstrates a commitment to uncovering and spreading what works. When exploring new avenues for professional development, delivery, and job-embedded teacher support, the foundation lies in making proven practices work in another context and specific to the system’s goals.

Chong-Hao shares:

[When exploring how to use AI], we didn’t want to start from scratch. We wanted to start from our research. We’ve been engaged with RPPL and a number of big studies…One of the key findings is that we have our biggest impact when there’s really strong coaching for [instructional] leaders. We find that it starts with at least eight hours a year, and too little turns out to be not enough.”

He adds:

It’s like boiling water; if we don’t get to 212 degrees, the water will not boil. So, at least eight hours of coaching a year for teacher leaders, and at least monthly walk-throughs to principals, so that principals and teacher leaders are aligned in improving the school system.”

💬 Reflect: How do you consider existing evidence when deciding where to invest? How can you ensure that your professional learning initiatives include dedicated support for the application of new knowledge that meets a sufficient threshold for impact this year?

Takeaway 2: Build a Vertical Spine for System-Wide Impact

Alignment matters. Chong-Hao celebrates:

The thing I’m proudest of, here at Leading Educators, is how we create a vertical spine that connects teachers to teacher leaders, coaches, principals, district leaders, all up and down the chain.”

This interconnectedness ensures a clear line of sight, shared understanding of instructional goals and how role-specific responsibilities come together to support student success, and attention to how supports should be differentiated across all levels, from teachers to district leadership. This unified approach contrasts with the common challenge of PD overload, where disconnected initiatives dilute impact and overwhelm educators.

In Charleston County School District, which leads the nation in ELA and math recovery on NAEP since the pandemic, this coherence translates into clear alignment: teachers understand instructional expectations, coaches know how to support them, principals look for them during learning walks, and district leaders ensure the necessary conditions are in place. This demonstrates how a unified approach can lead to substantial improvement.

💬 Reflect: How does your system prioritize a focused, coherent strategy that aligns various initiatives and avoids overwhelming educators?

Takeaway 3: Prioritize Practice in PL

Practice matters. Chong-Hao reflects:

Too often we forget that teaching is a performance sport, and you have to practice. It’s not enough to know better. You have to do better, and that requires embodying and practicing and making sure that the first lesson for kids is the best that we could do, which often means practicing with other adults in safe environments or with AI.”

Chong-Hao highlighted a recent facilitation experience where state leaders, despite their deep understanding of systemic work in education, found practicing a real lesson from high-quality instructional materials significantly more challenging and revealing than simply internalizing the material.

This underscores a critical point: knowing about effective teaching differs from actually doing it well. Just like athletes or performers, educators need opportunities to practice, embody new strategies, and refine their delivery in safe environments, whether with other teachers or AI, to ensure their first interaction with students is their best.

💬 Reflection: How do you provide teachers with dedicated and safe opportunities to practice new instructional moves and receive feedback before implementing them in the classroom? 

Takeaway 4: This doesn’t have to be another edtech deja vu moment

When it comes to AI, Chong-Hao cautions:

Only 6% of American teachers think the Gen AI will be a net positive for students, and actually, 25% think that it might be a negative. So, at Leading Educators, we are asking ourselves: How can teachers really be the pilots and not passengers, and how can they really be thinking about the practice and the implementation that will make a difference for kids?”

This skepticism among teachers is often rooted in past experiences with overwhelming and underexplained educational technology. Leading Educators know that a different paradigm is possible, where teachers are active pilots, not passive passengers, in integrating AI. However, to get there, a fundamental shift is needed to ensure educators have a strong voice in how AI is implemented and can strategically leverage it to enhance their instructional practices and drive better outcomes for their students. Efforts like the School Teams AI Collaborative with The Learning Accelerator are trying to make this possible.

💬 Reflect: How can you proactively address teacher skepticism towards new technologies like AI and foster a culture of agency?

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Get Support That Scales

While standards raised the bar for what students learn, they didn’t dictate how teachers should meet them. In the last decade, the growing availability of high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) has helped teachers understand what to teach, but they still need support developing strong practices—the how.

That’s why we’re working to shift the paradigm of professional development toward curriculum-based professional learning that scales and gets real results.

Learn how we can help you get your best results yet.