The Role of Local Facilitators in Scaling up a Well-Specified Teacher Professional Learning Program

ABSTRACT This article reports findings that describe the role that school- and district-based facilitators play in scaling up a published mathematics professional learning program. The study included 12 local facilitators (three teacher leaders and nine staff developers with specialization in mathematics, special education, or English learner education) who were trained in the use of the program and implemented it over the course of two years. Drawing on data collected through facilitator surveys and observations, we report descriptive findings regarding their implementation of the program, their plans for sustaining and scaling up the program, and the contributions of the program to their own professional learning. Our findings show that, with appropriate support, local facilitators were able to implement the program with high fidelity. Program use contributed to local facilitators’ professional learning. We also found differences between subgroups of local facilitators, with staff developers being more likely than teachers leaders to exhibit behaviors associated with high-quality facilitation. We examine how these findings align with current conceptualizations of scale and discuss their implications for preparing and supporting local facilitators in the implementation of well-specified professional learning programs.