Professional Development Days for Teachers: Make Them Count with Data-Driven Training

Professional development days for teachers are one of the most valuable opportunities for meaningful growth in schools. These days are intentionally set aside and painstakingly planned to help enhance instructional practices, boost morale, and ultimately improve student learning. Yet they are often under-enjoyed by teachers. And without focused, relevant content, they can easily become just another item on the calendar, which may contribute to the under-enjoyment.

At Dataspire, we believe professional development should do more than tick a box. As we all want, it should spark transformation. And as we know, it should be grounded in learning that is meaningful for teachers and students in-real-time. That’s why we design in-school teacher training workshops that are hands-on, customized, and—most importantly—effective at equipping educators with the tools they need to confidently teach data literacy.

Why Focus on Data Literacy?

Whether your school is prioritizing STEM instruction, emphasizing real-world problem solving, or aligning with updated standards, data literacy is increasingly essential across our content areas in our K-12 system (in math, social studies, computer science, science, and others). Yet, many teachers—even experienced ones—lack formal training in how to teach data skills. And this is in NO way their fault. Very few of us were actively taught how to effectively teach students data skills along the K-12 learning sequence, and even fewer of us actually learned data skills in our own K-12 experiences. This means that we are almost asking the impossible of our teachers…teach something to our students for their educational pathway and the state tests that you did not learn while you were in school nor were prepared for how to teach. Now that seems bonkers (as my kids would say 🙂). 

But good news! We can integrate data literacy courses effectively teaching these essential 21st century skills. AND when used well, data literacy instruction enhances student critical thinking, improves engagement, and encourages deeper content understanding. That is the win-win we are after. So there are great opportunities here to use our PD days to build such instructional muscles thus resulting in immediate and lasting impact.

Here’s what we know:

• Students need structured, scaffolded opportunities to learn how to read, work with, make sense of, and communicate with data.
  
• Teachers need time, support, and strategies to integrate those opportunities meaningfully into their existing curriculum and the tools you are already using (not something new to tackle…tweaks to integrate into the amazing work they do).
  
• Schools need professional development that delivers lasting results, not just inspiration and window dressing to check a box.
  
  

What Makes a PD Day Truly Count?

From our experience running PD-day sessions around data literacy here are 4 key elements to maximize the impact of your next professional development day:

1. Make It Immediately Applicable

While context and connection to the big picture are important. We all are more likely to retain and apply what we learn when the training includes ready-to-use strategies. Our in-school teacher training sessions include classroom-tested activities, lesson ideas, and rubrics that align directly with educators' content and grade level. So for example, many elementary classrooms have students graph Halloween candy…so here is an example of how to change that up a bit in immediately applicable ways: https://www.dataspire.org/blog/another-perspective-on-halloween-candy-charts

2. Connect to Real Classroom Challenges

We have all been there before, generic PD is quickly forgotten…which then can leave us all feeling like it was a waste of time. So it is not too surprising that the most effective teacher training workshops we find are tailored to your team’s specific goals—whether that’s supporting social studies teachers to find datasets about ancient civilizations or helping science teachers explore how to help students draw better conclusions from experimental data by identifying ways to enhance their students CER capabilities. At Dataspire, we customize each session to reflect your school’s unique context.

3. Foster Collaboration

Just like for our students, our PD days for teachers should offer more than just sit-and-get. Our workshops emphasize peer discussion, co-creation of lesson plans, and feedback loops—turning passive PD into active teacher-led transformation. Even using activities that engage teachers in working together around data can be a low hanging fruit way to make any PD day, regardless of topic area, more collaborative. Check out some ideas here: https://www.dataspire.org/blog/practice-data-moves-without-using-content-data-to-help-teach-your-content.

4. Provide Follow-Up Resources

One-and-done is never what we want for our students to do with their graphing. And one-off sessions don’t stick, or result in the growth we are looking for, unless there’s a support system in place. We offer schools the option of follow-up coaching, asynchronous resources, and extended PD series that reinforce learning and help teachers implement with confidence. But this can also be done in your existing structures of department meetings and/or professional learning communities.

How to Use Your Next PD Day Strategically

Looking ahead at your school calendar? Consider using your next professional development day to jumpstart a culture of confident data teaching.

  Our most requested sessions include:

•  Intro to Data Literacy (1 hour): Great for teams new to the overall topic. Coming Fall 2025!
  
•   Data Literacy Basics (3 hours): Practical strategies for immediate classroom use around more specific data topics.
  

Each of these workshops is aligned to national standards, research-backed, and delivered by former educators who understand the demands of today’s classrooms. 

Want to make your next professional development day impactful?
Let’s talk about how our in-school trainings can support your teachers.
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Teachers Deserve PD That Inspires—and Sticks

Too often, professional development days for teachers can feel rushed or disconnected from the realities of the classroom as the year goes on. But with intentional planning and expert-led sessions that build confidence in teaching data and graphing, these days can become true turning points for both teachers and students for teaching the content standards and preparing students for their state tests. Let’s make the next PD day easier for you and your teachers.