Cornell School District, home to 562 students in Allegheny County, about 10 miles from Pittsburgh, has an established track record for empowered learning. With small class sizes, robust partnerships and dual-enrollment courses, learners optimize pathways to future success, routinely defying some tough odds. What’s lesser known is that the district’s personalized approach and emphasis on choice extends to Cornell’s 60 teachers, whose five built-in professional development days are self-selected and engineered to meet their interests.
Cornell’s differentiated professional development program, the passion project of Dr. Kristopher Hupp, Director of Technology & Instructional Innovation, was initially devised as a way to re-engage fatigued teachers after the challenges of COVID. Four years in, the strategy’s staying power can be attributed to its popularity and results.
“If we want to see change happen in the classroom, professional development is really the only way we’re able to do it,” says Hupp. It’s also an effective way for the district to model the instructional shifts it encourages educators to make in the classroom.
“We want our classrooms to be inclusive spaces where every student is engaged, met at their level, and given opportunities for voice, choice, and growth,” adds Hupp. “Professional development is the vehicle that makes it possible.”
Equally important is the commitment and active participation of district leadership. On teacher in-service days, Cornell’s administrative team floats between sessions, staying engaged and fielding continuous feedback.
“We’re able to be creative because of our size,” explains Cornell’s Superintendent Dr. Aaron Thomas, who encourages candor and works to strengthen personal relationships with staff.
Each school year, Thomas’s team develops several professional development pathways that respond to ongoing teacher input. The options touch on standard topics like “AI in the Classroom,” but also address district-specific priorities. “Educators in the Workforce,” the most popular PD pathway, allows teachers to spend three full days off-site at regional workplaces, experiencing what the marketplace will soon expect from their students.
According to Thomas, these firsthand observations translate into real time changes in the classroom, ultimately helping students prepare for post-graduation. “We want to educate our kids on what their options are, but we also want to take some of that information and change up our programming a little bit,” Thomas says.
In a district with bona fide economic challenges, Cornell’s intentional work to cultivate a positive school and work culture is paying off. “We have one of the lowest teacher mobility rates in the region,” Thomas says. “We give teachers autonomy and we value them as educators.”
Aligning Adult Learning with the District’s Student-Centered Vision
In the Baldwin-Whitehall School District, a 4,500 student district roughly 20 miles from Cornell, professional development has evolved to meet the needs of a diverse teaching staff.
“Just as we need to differentiate instruction for our students, we recognized that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ model does not work for adults,” says Dr. Janeen Peretin, Assistant to the Superintendent at Baldwin-Whitehall. Nearly ten years ago, the district began the process of overhauling professional development, driven by the expiration of the teachers’ contract and an opportunity to innovate.
“Oftentimes, when school districts provide professional development for their faculty, it’s centered around academics,” says Andrea Huffman, Director of Educational Programming and Student Performance. But in a district like Baldwin-Whitehall, with many faculty positions “outside the classroom,” an overly academic focus can exclude educators and support staff from meaningful professional development. In response, Huffman and her team developed options that worked for everyone.
After some early modifications, the district’s professional development components now align with Journey of a Highlander, the Baldwin-Whitehall version of Portrait of a Graduate. “We asked ourselves, ‘What is it that we want our students to ultimately walk away with?” says Huffman. Highlander’s five core competencies were developed collaboratively by students, educators, families and community stakeholders to prepare graduates for a rapidly changing world.
On teacher in-service days, educators retain autonomy to select Highlander-aligned professional development pathways that can be fully supported by administration. “At the elementary level, for example, teachers are dipping their toes in flexible grouping,” explains Huffman, an effort that advances learner-centered priorities. Middle and high school teachers are learning about AI-powered tools to enhance instruction and exploring how to leverage AI for personalized learning, real-time feedback, and creative student engagement.
Tech savvy Baldwin-Whitehall uses tools like edWeb to aid flexibility, allowing teachers to download curated podcasts and webinars at their own speed. Since August 2024, more than 300 educators have engaged with hundreds of unique professional learning webinars, deeply exploring trauma-informed practices and effective instructional strategies.
“We’re exposing teachers to new content, filling gaps, and allowing them the time and opportunity to find inspiration,” says Peretin.
Systemic Changes Are Vital to Support and Scale Personalized Learning
The geographically diverse Butler Area School District, which serves 6,000 students in Butler County, is also using personalized learning strategies to drive change, for students and educators.
For these exciting changes to work, the district is taking active steps to ensure that internal systems are cohesive and aligned with its shift to student-centered instructional practices. For example, Butler recently received approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Education to use the Personalized Learning Framework as an alternative teacher evaluation model. The district is piloting the alternative approach with new teachers and long-term subs this school year.
“This approach allows us to integrate the framework into our teacher induction process from the very start,” says Brian White, Butler’s Superintendent. Over the next two years, the district will gradually expand the framework to include all faculty members, providing ongoing support as it scales implementation district-wide.
Butler has also retained a Personalized Learning Coach to provide targeted professional development and strategies to support innovative instructional practices. At the high school level, for example, teachers are redesigning their classrooms to optimize student engagement, and science classes are emphasizing real-world problem solving that is authentic and relatable.
“The innovative practices that we ask teachers to embrace are not just encouraged, but supported systemically, allowing us to foster a culture where professional growth is directly connected to our district vision,” says White.
These three districts, and many others in southwestern PA, are transforming instructional practices to support engaging, student-centered learning experiences. By modeling a personalized approach to professional development and aligning other critical internal systems — like teacher evaluations — they are creating conditions for personalized learning to take root in their communities.
Authored by: Erin Kane