Yes, It’s Possible to See Results from Professional Learning

July 23, 2025 | K-12 Dive

School districts invest millions in professional learning each year, yet many leaders struggle to identify a real return on investment.”

In a new opinion piece for K-12 Dive, Daniel Obregon counters the predominant narrative that professional development doesn’t work. The challenge is that many professional learning initiatives and new programs are assessed based on satisfaction rather than evidence of actual practice change or student mastery, which can be difficult to measure or take longer to show up.

He says, “If leaders are serious about improving instruction at scale, professional learning is nonnegotiable. But system-level evaluations must move beyond asking, “Did you like it?” to instead asking, “Did it make a difference?”

Citing strong, rigorous evidence from multiple Leading Educators partners, Daniel calls on the field to measure what matters and prioritize coherent investments.