There is good news about professional development. Timeworn, unproductive approaches are falling into disrepute. Educators now mock episodic learning venues as "drive-by staff development." They deride presenter-driven workshops as "sit-and-git." Expectations for professional development are rising. As educators are squeezed between fewer resources and more challenges, they become less tolerant of staff development experiences that don't increase their effectiveness as classroom and school leaders. Evidence is growing that the best professional learning is intensive, collaborative, and sustained, occurring at the work site as a routine part of the workday. This is not yet characteristic of most professional development but, as the late, great Sam Cooke sang, "a change is gonna come."

In spite of this progress, the public and most policymakers are woefully ignorant about professional development. They have only a vague impression of what it is. They have little understanding of its role in improving the performance levels of educators and students. In fact, their images of professional development are often inconvenient pupil-free days, junkets to conferences, and mandated, ineffective assemblies that waste teachers' time. There are still too many examples of such abuses, but they are becoming the exception rather than the rule.

Taxpayers and policymakers need to hear the good news about professional development. But who is taking that news to them? NSDC can only play a limited role. Its publications penetrate just a small fraction of households. While state- and locally-based associations of teachers and administrators have the most to gain if citizens understand and value professional learning, most of these organizations make little effort to educate the public about how professional development is changing.

For most non-educators, professional development is an esoteric subject. That will not change until rank-and-file educators take responsibility for sharing the good news. In informal conversations with relatives, friends, and neighbors they can describe their positive professional learning experiences. They can demonstrate enthusiasm for professional development they have found to be engaging and useful. If they have friends who are elected officials, they can describe how they have used their professional learning to become more effective educators.

The good news is that more and more front-line practitioners are engaged in professional learning that is improving their practice and benefitting their students. Unless educators themselves make it their business to share this news with citizens and policymakers, effective professional development will continue to struggle for resources and recognition.

Hayes Mizell is NSDC's distinguished senior fellow.