Personalizing Learning for Educators:

Measuring What Works

Lindsay Unified School District (LUSD) in central California is on a mission to ensure every student, or Lindsay learner, has a performance-based learning experience that allows them to succeed academically and personally. To achieve this vision, every learner must have the very best educator to support them on their journey.

In October 2017, LUSD received a federal Teacher and School Leader grant to design and implement professional learning strategies to improve educator recruitment, capacity, and retention. LUSD is seeking to cultivate the same mindset in educators that it spent the past decade fostering in its learners — that we are all learners — and therefore professional growth for teachers, whom LUSD calls learning facilitators, should be personalized and data-driven.

In 2018, LUSD partnered with The Learning Accelerator to use research science to understand the relationships between these innovative professional learning offerings and learner outcomes. Current research results are below and new results will be posted through 2020, as we discover which strategies lead to long-term change in learning facilitator and learner experiences.

Guided Reading Professional Learning: Effect on Instructional Behaviors and Learner Achievement

This executive summary highlights key findings from research conducted by TLA to understand if learning facilitators’ participation in LUSD's Guided Reading Learning Academies and Micro-Credentials professional development helps ensure all learners read at content level. Early results from the 2018-19 Academic Year show a positive relationship between learning facilitators’ participation in Guided Reading professional learning and learners’ reading growth. Certification is also a potentially powerful mechanism for converting professional learning experiences into visible instructional and achievement-related changes in the classrooms. The full report can be found online; an accessible version of this report is also available for downloading.

BetterLesson and PBLWorks Professional Learning at LUSD: Effects on Instructional Behaviors and Learner Outcomes

This research brief examines learning facilitators’ participation in two professional learning opportunities offered in partnership with external providers BetterLesson and PBLWorks in Grant Years 1 and 2 (2017-2019). Results from the two cohorts generally showed a positive relationship between participation and learners’ growth or achievement in four core content areas. This increased learning is perhaps due to educator actions aligned with LUSD’s Adult Learning Curriculum Instructional Look Fors. The Instructional Look For results from the PBLWorks observations mirror those from prior analyses focused on Guided Reading professional learning opportunities. Find the full report online; an accessible version of this report is also available for downloading.

A First Look at Instructional Look Fors at LUSD: Reliability and Validity of Instructional Look For Educator Actions

This interim research brief examines the keystone of LUSD’s Adult Learning Curriculum, known as Instructional Look Fors, and begins to explore if the Instructional Look Fors are a sound way of understanding the relationship between professional learning and learner achievement at LUSD. The initial data indicate that the majority of Instructional Look Fors are a measurable, reliable, and valid way for LUSD to understand the behaviors that are happening in learning environments and the relationships between professional learning, those behaviors, and learner outcomes. Download the executive summary or read the full report online; an accessible version of this report is also available for downloading.