Dive Brief:

• A growing number of secondary school districts nationwide are using technology to build professional development among teachers. Using platforms such as Google Plus and peer conferences like #EdCamp, teachers are learning best practices while earning new credentials for tech and pedagogical progress.
• The Hattiesburg School District in Mississippi incorporates online modules for teachers to discover new strategies for instruction, and at the Kettle Moraine School District in Wisconsin, system leaders launched a microcredentialing program to encourage professional development — which it also ties to teacher compensation considerations.   
• Observers say that these programs help instructors to sharpen existing skills while building new ones, and that it affords teachers at varying stages of their careers to learn at appropriate speeds and with useful content.

Dive Insight:

Empowering teachers with a common set of best practices is an ideal way to foster discussion and feedback from the workforce on how these strategies meld with resources and student profiles, in order to improve teaching and learning experiences.

Districts can further improve outcomes by charging teachers to self-establish metrics of success in student performance, working with teachers’ unions and associations to adopt common outcome standards, and promoting the tools to parents as potential tips for engaging students at home with assignments and studying.