S3/E12: Learning Labs — How Job-Embedded Professional Learning Transforms Teaching and Learning

What happens when professional learning moves from conference rooms into classrooms, with teachers, coaches, and principals learning together in real-time with actual students?In this episode, Elham Kazemi from the University of Washington and Jessica Calabrese, a former principal and district leader, share how Learning Labs revolutionize professional development by embedding it directly into classroom practice. Unlike traditional PD that separates learning from teaching, their approach brings teams of educators into classrooms together to collaboratively plan, teach, observe, and reflect—all while working with real students on authentic problems of practice.Drawing from their partnership that began in a federally-designated "persistently low-performing" school in South Seattle, Elham and Jessica reveal how this model shifts principals from evaluators to lead learners, transforms isolated teaching into collaborative inquiry, and positions students as the most important teachers of all. They discuss how focusing on student thinking rather than test scores creates the conditions for both academic growth and teacher retention.