Professional Learning Service
Transform your school’s teaching and learning with our comprehensive Professional Learning Services. We collaborate with partners to co-create customized support and practical tools to help educators at all levels continuously improve their practice.
Our services include:
- Professional Development: Engage in content-specific professional learning designed to enhance your teaching strategies and deepen your understanding of the learning process.
- Coaching Support: Develop your coaching skills with our research-based tools and resources, including specialized training for content-focused coaching and leadership coaching.
- Feedback and Collaboration: Utilize our feedback protocols and collaborative tools to analyze student work, refine instructional practices, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
- Leadership Development: Empower instructional leaders with the strategies and resources they need to plan, implement, and evaluate effective school-wide initiative
We partner with schools and districts to align our services with your unique goals and create sustainable, positive change for all students.
Content-Focused Coaching
Elevate your coaching with IFL’s Content-Focused Coaching (CFC) model. CFC empowers coaches to become true instructional leaders who drive student success. Through collaborative partnerships and hands-on learning, coaches gain the skills and knowledge to:
- Build strong relationships with teachers.
- Co-plan and co-teach engaging lessons
- Analyze student work and refine instructional strategies.
CFC has a proven track record of improving both student achievement and teacher practice. Learn more about our research and impact in our report, “Content-Focused Coaching for Continuous Improvement in Literacy and Mathematics.” [link to paper]
Enhance your coaching skills with our online CFC workshops.
Designed for math and ELA coaches, these workshops provide practical strategies and tools to:
- Deepen your understanding of the CFC cycle.
- Facilitate effective coach-teacher discussions.
- Provide targeted feedback that drives instructional improvement.
We also offer real-time professional development, personalized coaching support, and one-on-one coaching for teachers.
Leadership Development
Expand your impact by developing instructional leadership skills that enable you to identify, support, and scale high-quality teaching across classrooms. We collaborate closely with principals and senior administrators to address your school or district’s unique challenges and realize your vision for exceptional instruction.
Our Approach
We collaborate closely with school and district leaders to address your unique challenges and realize your vision for exceptional instruction. Our work:
- Centers on teaching and learning rather than generic management skills.
- Equips leaders to understand, support, and evaluate high-quality instruction in content areas such as mathematics and literacy.
- Provides tools and coaching to help leaders support teacher planning, observe classrooms, analyze student work, and give content-specific feedback (e.g., the Math Task Analysis Guide, Student-Centered Practices, Accountable Talk© Moves).
- Supports leaders in designing professional learning structures and strategies that improve student outcomes system-wide.
Leaders as Instructional Partners
We reframe leadership from evaluation to collaboration. In our model, principals and administrators are co-learners and thought partners with teachers. Leaders at all levels:
- Learn what high-quality instruction looks like in math and literacy (i.e., a principal can recognize whether a math task is high- or low-cognitive demand).
- Conduct asset walks that highlight strengths and opportunities in instruction and The Learning Walk© to monitor classroom implementation.
- Provide instructional feedback specific to content and student thinking.
- Facilitate teacher collaboration around student work and instructional practices.
Equity and Opportunity to Learn
Equity is inseparable from content. Our leadership development ensures leaders can:
- Interrogate how systemic inequities show up in instruction.
- Ensure that all students have access to high-level tasks, meaningful talk, and cognitively demanding content.
- Center student assets — their voices, identities, and linguistic repertoires — in instructional observation and professional learning.
Practice-Based, Networked Learning
Leaders don’t just learn about leadership — they practice it in cycles of inquiry, reflecting IFL’s commitment to collective inquiry and improvement science:
- Study high-quality instruction through videos, artifacts, and student work.
- Apply their learning in real classrooms.
- Reflect with peers in professional learning networks to refine their ability to lead for equity and rigor.
What We Help Leaders Do
Through customized coaching, IFL leadership development helps you:
- Develop a shared vision for high-quality instruction.
- Implement effective, system-wide strategies for instructional improvement.
- Align curriculum, assessment, and professional learning.
- Use data to drive decisions and measure impact.
Whether you're looking to enhance classroom discourse, refine curriculum, or build a stronger culture of instructional excellence, IFL leadership development transforms school and district leaders into expert instructional leaders who expand opportunities for all students to learn at the highest levels.
Assets & Needs Inventories
Unlock potential with Learning and Asset Walk services. These powerful routines offer a unique lens to observe and understand the dynamics of teaching and learning within your K-12 school. By focusing on both instructional practices and the rich assets within your community, we help you cultivate a culture of continuous improvement and equitable outcomes for all students.
The Learning Walk© Routine: Illuminating the Instructional Core
The Learning Walk© routine provides a structured and efficient approach to observing classroom instruction. It's a non-evaluative, non-judgmental process that aims to provide valuable insights into teaching and learning strategies, student engagement, and classroom environments.
What to Expect:
- Focused Observations: Walkers concentrate on the instructional core – the interplay between teachers, students, and content – through the lens of established Principles of Learning.
- Evidence-Based Insights: Recognizing the limited timeframe, walkers gather specific, targeted evidence of classroom practices.
- Catalysts for Reflection: Instead of evaluations, walkers formulate thoughtful noticings, wonderings, and questions designed to spark reflection and encourage the adoption of innovative teaching methods.
The Value of The Learning Walk©:
- Foster Professional Growth: The walk itself becomes a valuable professional learning experience for all participants, promoting a deeper understanding of effective pedagogy and curriculum alignment.
- Make Learning Public: By opening classrooms for observation, Learning Walks create a culture of transparency and shared learning, fostering rich opportunities for collegial reflection and discussion.
- Drive Continuous Improvement: Observations and subsequent reflections inform the refinement of teaching practices, leading to enhanced instructional quality across the school or district.
- Inform Professional Development: The collected data provides valuable insights into current classroom practices, enabling targeted and impactful professional development initiatives.
- Ensure Uniform Data Collection: This routine offers a consistent method for gathering essential data on classroom practice.
Asset Walks: Recognizing and Leveraging Strengths
Our Asset Walk routine offers a powerful counterpoint to deficit-based thinking by focusing on the wealth of cultural, social, and instructional strengths present within your school community. Grounded in the belief that diversity is a valuable asset, this routine helps you identify and leverage your unique resources that can enhance teaching and learning.
How it Works:
- Strengths-Based Approach: We move beyond identifying weaknesses and instead focus on the existing talents, knowledge, and experiences of students and teachers.
- Holistic Perspective: Walkers consider both the sociocultural assets (e.g., students’ backgrounds, community connections) and instructional strengths (e.g., innovative teaching strategies, collaborative learning environments).
- Inclusive and Respectful Data Collection: Conducted with sensitivity and respect, Asset Walks gather data that celebrates the diverse strengths within classrooms and the school as a whole.
The Benefits of Asset Walks:
- Build a Strong Foundation: By identifying and understanding existing assets, schools can build upon these strengths to foster greater student learning and achievement.
- Promote Equity and Inclusion: Recognizing the value of diverse backgrounds and experiences creates a more inclusive and equitable learning environment for all students.
- Empower Educators: Focusing on strengths can boost teacher morale and encourage the sharing of effective practices.
- Cultivate a Positive School Culture: An asset-based approach fosters a more positive and supportive school climate where the contributions of all members are valued.
- Inform Strategic Planning: Understanding the assets within your school community can inform strategic decisions aimed at maximizing student success.
Instructional Resources
The IFL offers instructional materials in English language arts and mathematics. Materials can be flexibly integrated into existing curricula.
Designed around core concepts in each discipline, our materials apprentice students to read, write, talk, inquire, and reason as scientists, mathematicians, historians, readers, and writers. Students learn to use an array of tools to manage, assess, and reflect on their learning.
Our units and lessons are also educative for teachers. We provide:
- rationales for tasks;
- ways to differentiate tasks for the variety of learners in today’s classrooms;
- ways to help students engage in the intellectual struggle of learning;
- questions and tasks to assess and advance students’ learning; and
- routines for generating and sustaining academically productive talk and collaboration.
Our materials are designed to empower teachers to make instructional decisions based on informal and formal assessments of students’ learning.
The IFL’s instructional materials can be used as:
- high-quality curricula to advance student learning and fill gaps in existing curricula;
- models of coherent and challenging curricula to advance educators’ learning;
- and templates to guide the development and revision of school, district, or state curricula.