TLA has joined forces as a research partner to Lindsay Unified School District (LUSD) in its efforts to develop personalized, competency-based professional learning pathways for its facilitators (i.e., teachers). Through this work, LUSD seeks to cultivate the same mindset in educators that it spent the past decade fostering in students — that we are all learners — and therefore professional growth for facilitators should be targeted, personalized, and data-driven. LUSD investigated several strategies centered on instructional practices aligned to its student-centered framework for personalized learning to make this vision a reality.
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 their first federal Teacher and School Leader (TSL) grant to design and implement professional learning strategies to improve educator recruitment, capacity, and retention. They partnered with The Learning Accelerator in 2018 to use research science to understand the relationships between a series of personalized professional learning offerings and learner outcomes.
Over the years, this partnership expanded. In 2020, TLA was awarded a two-year extension as part of LUSD’s TSL grant and completed six additional scopes of work spanning from Unfinished Learning and Adult Wellbeing to Personalized Professional Learning and Leadership Development. The research results from all five years of the grant can be read below.
Assessing a “Grow-Your-Own” Teacher Residency Program
Teacher residency programs have the potential to address two systems-level challenges exacerbated by the pandemic: educator shortages and training for novice educators. Given current teacher shortages and the need to prepare educators for the unique contexts of their communities, districts have increasingly turned to “grow-your-own” models, which, according to recent research from the National Center for Teacher Residencies, afford unique benefits. This report provides an overview of the findings of a mixed-method study conducted to understand the impacts of the first year of LUSD’s “grow-your-own” residency program.
Building Community and Capacity: The Effects of the First Year of LUSD’s Teacher Residency Program
Professional Learning in a Time of Crisis
The need for professional learning does not stop in a crisis – in fact, it intensifies. Educators who are new to the field need additional support; experienced professionals need quality learning opportunities to continue their growth; and new or amplified issues arise that educators need to be equipped to address. This report describes the implementation of LUSD’s personalized professional learning pathways in the midst of a pandemic, the features and structures designed to support personalized professional learning, and recommendations to guide future implementations.
Supporting Adult Wellbeing
Recognizing the critical connection between the wellbeing of adults and its mission to empower and motivate every learner, LUSD sought to gain greater understanding of educator and staff experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was designed to: adopt a framework to guide a study of adult wellbeing, conduct a district-wide needs assessment to help LUSD prioritize responses to and support for adult wellbeing, and provide leaders and educators with concrete language to discuss wellbeing in order to identify meaningful solutions.
Creating a Culture of Adult Wellbeing at School: Investing in Adults to Support Students
Addressing Unfinished Learning
In Spring 2020, schools abruptly closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in an unprecedented disruption to teaching and learning. LUSD partnered with TLA to examine the context around COVID-19 closures and unfinished learning – and to examine the progress LUSD learners were able to make in the face of the challenges posed by the pandemic.
Understanding the Effects of Personalized Professional Learning
LUSD conducted a three-year study (2017-2020) of the effects of personalized professional learning on learner growth as part of its three-year, federal Teacher and School Leader (TSL) Grant.
Effects of Personalized Professional Learning Opportunities on Learner Growth: Final Report
- Executive Summary
- Effects of Professional Learning Opportunities on Learner Growth: Background and Information Supporting the Three-Year TSL Grant
- Effects of Professional Learning Opportunities on Learner Growth: Cluster Analysis
- Effects of Personalized Professional Learning Opportunities on TK-8 Learner Growth
- Effects of Professional Learning Opportunities on TK-8 Learner Growth: Analysis of the Cluster Characteristics
- Effects of Personalized Professional Learning Opportunities on 9-12 Common Core Literacy
Learner Behaviors and Actions During Personalized, Remote Learning
In this standalone study, LUSD captured educator perceptions of their learners’ experience during COVID-19 school closures in the Spring of 2020. The findings from this report informed planning for the district’s fall return to remote learning.
Initial Explorations into the Effects of Personalized Learning
Throughout the first two years of the TSL Grant, LUSD conducted small studies to examine the efficacy of specific professional learning programs on learner growth as well as to begin the validation process for their Instructional Look Fors.
Guided Reading Professional Learning: Effect on Instructional Behaviors and Learner Achievement
First Look at Instructional Look Fors
LUSD conducted initial research into its Instructional Look Fors, a series of learner behaviors, organized into six principles, each aligned with several educator actions that facilitate or demonstrate the Look Fors. This early research was completed to help the district understand whether the Instructional Look Fors demonstrated a sound way of understanding the relationship between professional learning and learner achievement.
Explore Resources
- Teacher and School Leader Grant: Impact At-A-Glance
- TLA Blog: Looking Back and Looking Forward: Lessons from Lindsay Unified School District
- TLA Blog: LUSD Personalizes Learning for Educators
- Getting Smart: Defining and Measuring the ‘Personal’ in Personalized Learning
- What Are Instructional Look Fors? (Video)
- Instructional Look Fors Research at Lindsay Unified School District (Video)
- Instructional Look Fors Guide (Website)
- Getting Smart: 5 Research-Based Recommendations for Remote Learning: Lessons from LUSD
- Measuring Personalized Professional Learning: A Three-Year Study of What Works Best, For Whom, Under What Conditions, and Why (Webinar)
- Setting up a Residency Program: The What, Where, and How to Make it Work for Your System (Report)
