Drive-by training is a leadership choice. Here’s what to do instead
Every August, school leaders open the year with two days of professional development that they hope will transform instruction. Every September, they walk into classrooms and discover that almost nothing has changed. Then they blame the teachers. The truth is harder: the problem isn’t that your staff didn’t learn. The problem is that your PD model was designed to inform, not to change practice and those are different jobs entirely.
Why One-and-Done PD Doesn’t Work
Adult learning research is unambiguous: information transfer alone changes almost nothing about classroom practice. To actually change what a teacher does on a Tuesday morning, you need a sequence that includes information, modeling, practice with feedback, and coaching over time. A one-day workshop hits step one and skips the rest. That’s why August inspiration evaporates by Halloween.
The Real PD Math
- Information only: about 5% of teachers implement new practices reliably.
- Information + modeling: about 15% of teachers implement reliably.
- Information + modeling + practice + feedback + coaching: 80–90% of teachers implement reliably.
If your PD calendar includes only information delivery, you are paying for a 5% outcome. The other 95% of teachers want to change. They just don’t have the supports they need to do it.
What Better PD Looks Like
1. Build PD around fewer, deeper priorities.
Pick 2–3 instructional priorities for the year. Not 10. Three. Then build every workshop, every coaching cycle, every PLC around them.
2. Use distributed practice, not massed practice.
Eight 45-minute sessions across the year beats two 8-hour sessions in August. Brains, adult or otherwise need time to integrate.
3. Embed in the work.
Job-embedded coaching, lesson studies, learning walks, video-based reflection. PD has to happen near the classroom, not far from it.
4. Measure transfer, not satisfaction.
Most schools measure PD by smile sheets. Measure it instead by classroom evidence: Did walkthroughs in November look different from walkthroughs in August? That’s the only score that matters.
| PD is not an event. It’s a pipeline. If your pipeline doesn’t end in changed classroom practice, every dollar you spent on it was charity, not investment. |
Your teachers don’t need more information. They need a system that helps them turn information into practice. Stop blaming the staff. Start redesigning the model.
| CSAS designs and delivers PD systems engineered for actual transfer sustained learning sequences, coaching cycles, and measurable change in classroom practice. Book a free PD audit to evaluate the ROI of your current model. |