Stop Guessing: 5 Questions That Shape A Strong PD Plan

Aug 1

Every fall, school leaders start fielding the same internal question: where should our PD dollars and time actually go? Sometimes it's a gut feeling. Sometimes the data points somewhere clear. Sometimes teachers are the ones naming the gap.

Here are five questions we ask alongside the school leaders we work with—and what happened when each one led to real change.

1. What does our data say about students' learning, compared to our school's mission and vision?

One school noticed that its strongest math students in advanced sections had stalled rather than grown. They called us. We built a PD series around "teaching to the top": helping every teacher use a UDL lens so all students, not just the advanced group, could reach rigorous learning targets. The result: a schoolwide shift from a narrow fix to a sustainable teaching practice.

2. What patterns show up when I visit classrooms?

One principal client was noticing heavy whole-group instruction across most classrooms in his building. He came to us wanting PD on small-group, differentiated instruction. This is now our third year with this school—we're building each cycle on the last, so the faculty's toolkit keeps deepening as they become more confident in their craft. The payoff: a more collaborative, aligned faculty and a stronger classroom experience for students.

3. Where does our classroom experience need to shift to match our mission?

A pre-K–8 independent school already living its mission well came to us seeking sustainable differentiation—support for every learner without burning out teachers. We designed a layered rollout: every teacher workshop is preceded by a "train the trainer" session for coaches and division heads, so leadership can preview content and plan implementation before it hits classrooms. That structure is what makes the PD stick beyond the workshop day, changing teacher practice and impacting student learning.

4. Do children and adults smile frequently at my school?

The schools we work with are happy places, but happiness and honesty aren't the same thing. We often see a "culture of nice," where teachers avoid naming what isn't working so no one feels uncomfortable.

Instructional Rounds change that. At two schools this past year, teachers reviewed their own observation notes and named the same elephant: not enough tasks asking students to analyze, evaluate, or think at a high level. Naming it was uncomfortable, and it's exactly what unified both faculties around a shared push for more rigor. More honesty led to more connection, not less.

5. Do our teachers share a common language about instructional best practices?

At a small K–8 school in Montgomery County, the head of school wanted every teacher stretching students appropriately. But without a shared definition of "rigor," there was a false impression that teachers were challenging kids’ thinking. We ran Instructional Rounds (teachers observed each other and gathered qualitative data), then facilitated conversations to build a common definition—How does our school define rigorous thinking tasks? The following year, we led PD that paired challenging learning tasks with scaffolding and choice, so teachers could make rigor accessible to more students. Now, that shared language lets teachers hold each other accountable while raising the bar together.