How Learning Forward’s Professional Learning Standards Are Associated With Teacher Instruction and Student Achievement: A Meta-Analysis

Since the setting of Learning Forward's 2011 Standards, a growing body of research and implementation in the field has surfaced revealing additional areas of interest salient to teacher professional learning. These areas have emerged as Learning Forward has engaged in ongoing discussion with practitioners and researchers.

AIR conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to shed light on the context in which the standards sit within existing research in the last decade. Its purpose is to formally analyze available evidence from a specific type of research— randomized field trials of teacher professional learning programs—that ties features of the standards to teacher instruction and student learning. 

AIR’s study helped contextualize the standards within randomized field studies of professional learning published between 2010 and 2020. The study also contributed to the understanding of how changes in teacher instruction are associated with changes in student achievement (i.e., the mediating effect of teacher instruction on student outcomes).