Discussion-based protocols — an “agreed upon set of discussion or observation rules that guide coach/teacher/student work, discussion, and interactions” (Ippolito & Lieberman, 2012, p. 79) — can help focus and structure productive professional learning discussions.

However, while protocols are slowly growing into essential elements of professional learning in schools (Ippolito, 2010, 2013; Peterson, Taylor, Burnham, & Schock, 2009), there remains little research to guide educators in the process of exploring and implementing protocols to advance specific instructional goals.

With this in mind, we have begun to document how teams of teachers explore and use protocols to support professional learning (Ippolito & Pomerantz, 2013/2014).

We investigated how the use of protocols enhanced professional learning among a group of reading specialists when Salem State University partnered with a suburban school district. The goal was to support eight elementary and two middle school reading specialists as they became data coaches, helping classroom teachers examine the implications of literacy data for their instruction.