DESIGNING FOR IMPACT
A tool for planning, monitoring, and assessing professional learning
Summary
Aligned with Dr. Thomas Guskey’s five levels of evaluation, DESIGNING FOR IMPACT is a planning guide for professional learning design and monitoring. The protocol walks teams through a series of questions to define realistic and authentic program objectives and measurable goals. It helps users identify types and sources of evidence to monitor and gauge implementation progress towards those goals. It also elevates an essential aspect of program design that often gets ignored — the necessary organizational supports to create the conditions for success.
Highlights
- Engaging all stakeholders influencing or impacted by the program clarifies how to work collectively to create the enabling conditions for effective professional learning.
- Defining specific changes you want to see in the student learning experience, and measuring what matters first, helps identify what the research says teachers and schools need to do to support that change.
- Building a solid list of types and sources of evidence supports data-based discussions to pinpoint new or unanticipated challenges and the agility to make adjustments along the way.
Why this matters
Professional learning planning, design, and evaluation are too often guided by intuition, assumptions, and unaligned outcomes. Scaffolds for defining goals and evidence of success at every level of participation leads an invested stakeholder community to evidence-based program design.