Santa Clara Unified reports 32,000 professional-learning hours tied to student achievement goals

District instructional leaders told the Santa Clara Unified School District Board of Education that they have intentionally structured professional development in 2025–26 as a coherent, multiyear progression designed to strengthen Tier 1 instruction and support multilingual learners and students with disabilities.

Director (Dr.) Knavel presented summary figures: since the district’s first new-teacher day on Aug. 5, staff logged more than 32,000 professional-learning hours across over 300 unique learning opportunities. The presenter said more than 90% of participating teachers reported that the professional learning provided strategies they plan to use in their practice; staff also emphasized instructional coaching, follow-up, and embedded collaboration as central to transfer to classroom practice.

Board members asked how the district will measure whether professional learning impacts student outcomes. Trustee Andy Rotterman and others said objective metrics would help justify the district’s investment; the presenter acknowledged isolating causal effects is difficult but suggested post-surveys, coaching observations and qualitative assessments as ways to track implementation and improvements over time.

Trustees encouraged staff to assemble objective measures where feasible and to report back on post-survey results or other outcome-linked indicators when available.