I first met Katya Denisova, PhD three years ago at a RPPL (Research Partnership for Professional Learning) convening in Washington, DC. When she mentioned she runs all professional learning (PL) internally across Baltimore City Public Schools, my jaw dropped. Just thinking about staff parking and seating for PL days makes me want to curl up in a ball, let alone the depth and differentiation needed to make it powerful. I needed to learn how she does it. Conversation #86 did not disappoint.

"We believe the most powerful professional learning happens when it's designed and delivered by the people closest to the work. With 160 schools and programs and over 5,000 teachers, we have made a deliberate choice to build PL capacity from within. While we do partner with vendors when adopting new curricula, our long-term goal is always to transition that facilitation to our own teachers and coaches by Year 3. When externally-provided PL doesn't align with our internal standards, we don't simply accept it. We redesign it so that it still delivers value while staying true to who we are.

One of the things I am most proud of is our Design and Facilitation of Adult Learning course. Since 2023, we have trained almost 1,000 educators through this 3-day experience offered three times a year. Teachers can be nominated by their principals or raise their hand to apply, and we have an active waitlist. When you invest in teachers as leaders, they show up. We also make sure our administrators take this course. When a principal understands the principles of adult learning, they can better support and align the teacher leaders and coaches who are facilitating PL in their buildings. That alignment matters enormously for a district of our scale.

Our literacy model is another example of an inside-out approach. Our district established PL cycles organized around key literacy focus areas of student discourse, student questioning, and quality of writing. The district builds PL around each one on a quarterly basis, grounded in the belief that every teacher is a teacher of literacy.

Alongside this success, we are also navigating real workforce challenges. Teacher shortages have sometimes pulled coaches into classroom coverage roles, which limits their impact. We are actively recruiting from new pipelines, including internationally, to meet the needs of our incredibly diverse school communities across Baltimore.

One more moment worth sharing: when the blizzard threatened our PL day, our team pivoted 200 in-person sessions to virtual with less than 2 day’s notice. Using our recently launched KickUp LMS we built a virtual accountability model tied to licensure renewal credit, saving teachers significant out-of-pocket costs. Facilitators were equipped with clear guidance for creating dynamic online experiences, and we tracked participation across 3 engagement indicators. We are proud to say it worked! And clearly demonstrates that like our students, we’re always learning."