What Is an Effect Size in Education, and What Does It Actually Tell You?
When a school or district considers a new curriculum, instructional strategy, or education program, one question...
An August professional development kickoff can feel like a fresh start. Teachers return with new strategies and ideas they're eager to try. By October, though, those same strategies may have disappeared from classroom instruction.
The school year gets busy, competing priorities and the realities of the classroom take over, and teachers return to more familiar routines.
The problem isn't necessarily the workshop or the people leading it. It's what happens afterward. Lasting instructional improvement requires opportunities to practice new approaches, receive feedback, reflect on what's working, and adjust learning to real classroom challenges.
That's the purpose of job-embedded professional development. It’s ongoing learning connected to teachers' everyday work, curriculum, and student needs.
Rather than treating professional development as an isolated event, school leaders can build processes that support teachers throughout the school year.
Ahead, we'll explore how ongoing professional development can improve instruction and student engagement and steps to take to get it right.
Districts invest considerable time and money in their teacher development, but that investment doesn't always translate into meaningful changes in classroom instruction.
"Adopting new instructional materials is only the first step. Teachers also need time to understand how those materials work, adapt lessons to their students, and work through challenges."
Consider TNTP's 2015 report, The Mirage: Confronting the Hard Truth About Our Quest for Teacher Development. Researchers looked at teacher development efforts across three large school districts and one charter school network. They surveyed more than 10,000 teachers, plus hundreds of school leaders, and analyzed teacher performance data.
The findings raised important questions about how districts approach professional learning:
The findings don't mean professional development is inherently ineffective, nor establish that spending more on PD causes better or worse teaching. They do highlight a gap between the resources devoted to teacher development and the instructional improvement districts hope to achieve.
TNTP also didn’t find a consistent relationship between any particular type or amount of professional development and substantial teacher improvement in the settings studied. The research shows that simply labeling an activity as coaching, differentiated support, or another promising approach doesn't guarantee results.
A workshop can introduce a useful instructional strategy, but teachers still need to figure out how to apply it to their students and curriculum. Without opportunities to rehearse, test new things out, receive feedback, and revisit the material, even a strong idea can struggle to make its way into everyday instruction.
For example, a math department might attend a session on facilitating mathematical discourse. Teachers leave with new questioning techniques, but nobody has time to plan how to incorporate them into an upcoming unit. They don't observe colleagues using the techniques, discuss student responses, or receive feedback on their own implementation.
The strategy gets lost in the demands of the school year without consistent follow-through.
This isn't a failure on the part of teachers. It's a reminder that professional learning needs a structure that supports implementation, not just initial exposure.
Research on professional development shows that effective learning experiences combine subject-specific content, active participation, collaboration, feedback, and opportunities to apply new knowledge.
A 2017 review by the Learning Policy Institute examined 35 studies linking professional development to changes in teaching practices and student learning. Researchers identified seven common features of effective professional learning:
These features offer a useful design checklist, not a ranking of what matters most when it comes to successful PD programs.
A 2019 review by Lynch et al. of 95 STEM professional development programs found that student outcomes were stronger when teachers received help using curriculum materials and had opportunities to discuss implementation. It makes sense. Professional learning works better when it connects to what teachers are actually teaching.
More training hours don’t automatically lead to better results, either. A 2016 review of 28 studies found that popular design features, including duration and format, weren't reliable indicators of effectiveness. What matters is how professional learning helps teachers put new ideas into practice.
For district leaders and instructional coaches, the challenge is translating research into a workable plan. The following approaches improve professional development for teachers by connecting earning to teachers' daily responsibilities and the instructional goals of the school.
Coaching is most useful when teachers can bring questions from their own classrooms and get help working through them. A math teacher might ask a coach to help students move beyond memorizing procedures and explain why a strategy works.
In science, a teacher might need help getting students to build on evidence during an investigation.
A 2018 meta-analysis examined 60 causal studies and found that coaching teachers improved both instruction and student achievement. The results are encouraging, but there's an important consideration for district leaders: coaching programs had smaller effects when they served 100 or more teachers. This shows that expanding a successful small program doesn't guarantee the same results at district scale.
The structure of coaching is important, too. Leaders need to provide trained coaches, manageable caseloads, and protected time for classroom visits and follow-ups. Coaches also need to work within the curriculum teachers are using, so their feedback connects to actual lessons rather than generic instructional advice. Teachers should have opportunities to try a strategy, get specific feedback, and revisit it.
This kind of support also contributes to career-long growth for STEM teachers, helping educators continue to refine their practice. If coaching conversations aren't leading to changes in lesson planning or classroom practice, the support may not be close enough to the work.
Explore STEMscopes Professional Learning to see how coaching and professional learning can support teachers' classroom practice.
Teachers shouldn’t have to work through instructional challenges alone. Collaborative learning gives educators structured opportunities to plan together, examine student work, share classroom experiences, and adjust their approaches. Professional learning communities (PLCs) and lesson study are two ways to do this. Both create opportunities for teachers to connect professional learning with actual classroom instruction.
For example, a middle school math team might identify a recurring problem: Students can calculate fractions but struggle to explain why their methods work. Teachers could plan a lesson together, agree on a strategy targeting mathematical reasoning, and try it in their classrooms.
At the next meeting, they could compare student responses. Did students explain their thinking more clearly? Which questions generated the most useful discussion? Where did misconceptions persist?
This makes collaboration purposeful. Rather than meeting to share announcements or discuss general classroom concerns, teachers work toward a specific instructional goal. School leaders can support this approach by scheduling regular collaboration time, providing clear objectives, and ensuring teachers have access to relevant student work and curriculum materials.
Teachers need to understand not just which instructional strategies to use, but how those strategies connect to their curriculum, teaching materials, and learning objectives. Curriculum-focused professional learning helps teachers put instructional resources to work. This is essential in STEM professional development, where lessons often involve specialized content, investigations, and problem-solving activities.
"A kickoff session can establish a shared focus, but regular coaching, collaborative meetings, classroom application, and reflection give teachers opportunities to build on that foundation."
The Lynch et al. meta-analysis found stronger student-achievement gains in STEM programs that helped teachers use curriculum materials and included opportunities to discuss implementation.
A 2019 study from Harvard's Center for Education Policy Research, Learning by the Book, also highlighted a gap in curriculum training. Looking at elementary math instruction across six states, researchers found that teachers received an average of just 0.8 to 1.6 days of professional development related to their textbooks.
Adopting new instructional materials is only the first step. Teachers also need time to understand how those materials work, adapt lessons to their students, and work through challenges.
For example, a science department introducing a new investigation-based curriculum could use professional learning sessions to work through activities, review teacher guidance, and discuss ways to differentiate. Follow-up meetings would give teachers a chance to share what’s working and what isn’t, and make adjustments.
This kind of ongoing support helps math and science teachers connect curriculum resources, content knowledge, and instructional strategies to build students' understanding.
Professional learning becomes more useful when teachers can see how new strategies work in actual classrooms. Observation and feedback help connect what educators learn during training to what happens during instruction.
This doesn't have to mean formal evaluations. Peer observations, coaching visits, and short instructional walkthroughs can all provide opportunities to notice how students respond to new strategies
For example, a science teacher might invite a colleague to observe a lesson focused on student questioning. Afterward, they could discuss whether students had opportunities to generate their own questions and which parts of the lesson resulted in students participating more.
The feedback should be specific, constructive, and connected to the instructional goal. Rather than offering a general judgment about the lesson, observers can identify what they noticed, ask reflective questions, and help the teacher consider possible next steps.
District leaders can make this process more effective by protecting time for observation and creating a culture in which feedback is understood as part of professional growth. Rubrics can help teachers understand what they’re looking for when observation time happens.
Observation data can also help leaders identify broader instructional needs across a school or district. This can provide a foundation for identifying patterns and planning future professional learning.
Job-embedded professional development doesn't end when the initial session is over. Teachers need time to try new strategies, reflect on what happens, and get support as they put new ideas into practice.
A 2007 review by Yoon et al. offers evidence for the value of sustained learning. Researchers examined more than 1,300 studies, but only nine met their evidence standards. Those nine studies involved programs averaging approximately 49 contact hours, with student achievement gains of about 21 percentile points. By comparison, the three studies examining programs with five to 14 hours of professional development found no statistically significant effects.
These findings come with limitations: all nine studies focused on elementary education, and the small number of qualifying studies makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions about the ideal amount of professional learning time. The takeaway isn't that every teacher needs 49 hours of PD. It's that a single workshop is unlikely to provide opportunities teachers need to learn, practice, and improve.
For district leaders, that means planning professional learning across the school year. A kickoff session can establish a shared focus, but regular coaching, collaborative meetings, classroom application, and reflection give teachers opportunities to build on that foundation.
Sustained professional learning doesn't have to mean adding more workshops to a busy school calendar. It means organizing existing professional development time around a clear instructional goal and building in opportunities for teachers to apply what they’ve learned.
District leaders can use the following sequence to create a year-long professional learning plan:
The key is to give teachers a clear focus and ongoing support, rather than treating professional development as a one-time event.
Accelerate Learning provides professional learning services through STEMscopes and its partnership with the National Institute for STEM Education (NISE). Our approach includes differentiated learning that is extended and scaffolded over time, rather than stopping after initial implementation training.
Schools and districts can choose from on-site, virtual, and blended sessions, online courses, workshops, and individual or small-group coaching. Support can focus on three areas: STEMscopes implementation, STEM certificates, and instructional best practices.
The goal is to connect professional learning to teachers' instructional needs, whether they're learning a new curriculum, developing specific teaching practices, or continuing to refine their classroom approach.
Explore Accelerate Learning's professional learning services.
Ready to move beyond one-and-done workshops? Build a professional learning plan with our team.
Job-embedded professional development is ongoing teacher learning connected to everyday classroom responsibilities, curriculum, and student needs. Rather than relying exclusively on workshops, it incorporates professional development best practices like coaching, collaborative planning, classroom observation, and feedback. Teachers apply new strategies in their classrooms and receive ongoing support as they refine their instruction.
A single workshop can introduce new ideas, but it doesn't necessarily give teachers the time or support to implement them. Without opportunities to practice, receive feedback, collaborate with colleagues, and revisit instructional strategies, teachers may struggle to translate what they learn into everyday classroom practice.
There isn't one universally effective duration for professional development. Research suggests that sustained learning can support instructional improvement, but time alone doesn't guarantee results. Districts should plan ongoing opportunities for practice, coaching, collaboration, and reflection throughout the school year, based on teachers' needs and instructional goals.
Effective teacher coaching connects professional learning to actual classroom instruction. A coach might help an educator plan a lesson, model an instructional strategy, observe its implementation, and provide constructive feedback. Follow-up conversations give teachers opportunities to reflect, address challenges, and refine their approach.
Curriculum-based professional learning helps teachers understand and use the instructional materials they work with every day. It connects subject-specific knowledge and teaching strategies to actual lessons and learning objectives. Teachers can explore curriculum resources, anticipate student challenges, and collaborate on effective ways to implement materials.
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