Desimone, Smith, & Phillips Linking student achievement to professional development

Desimone, L., Smith, T. M., & Phillips, K. J. R. (2013). Linking student achievement growth to professional development participation and changes in instruction: A longitudinal study of elementary students and teachers in Title I schools. Teachers College Record, 115(5), 1-46.

Summary: This quasi-experimental longitudinal study (3 years) drew from 71 high poverty schools from 18 school districts in 7 states. Data included 7588 observations of 4803 students assigned to 457 teachers. Their research questions  investigated the effect of content-focused professional development on student achievement. They found that when teachers focused on advanced mathematical topics, student achievement in test scores increased more quickly than students of teachers who received professional development targeted at basic math instruction.