by Francesca Forzani and Deborah Loewenberg Ball
More than a decade ago, TeachingWorks introduced a list of high-leverage practices (HLPs)—especially important for beginning teachers to learn and develop, and for experienced teachers to continue to hone, because they are central to the work of teaching. Today, we’re introducing a revised list of TeachingWorks HLPs, reflecting what we’ve learned since that original list was published in 2012.
The revised list represents both continuity and refinement. Most of the practices on the original list remain. At the same time, our work with teacher educators, teachers, and school and district leaders, together with developments in the research on teaching and learning, has helped us see some aspects of teaching more clearly. The challenges and opportunities that teachers face have also evolved, including the growing prevalence of high-quality instructional materials and the emergence of AI-enabled tools. The 2026 list reflects what we have learned from all of this.
From teacher preparation to a framework for the work of teaching
The original TeachingWorks HLPs grew out of work at the University of Michigan’s Marsal Family School of Education to identify and specify the key practices of teaching. Faculty working across subject areas and areas of expertise, together with classroom teachers from different grade levels, subject areas, states, and teaching contexts, developed a list that could provide a common reference point for teacher preparation.
Those practices soon became much more than a list. They became the backbone and organizing principle that led to the launch of TeachingWorks. They helped us articulate the work that beginning teachers have to learn to do, and what practicing teachers continue to refine. They also provided a foundation for developing the tools, resources, and approaches that have become central to our work in practice-based teacher education.
Today, we continue to ground our professional learning for both teacher educators and PK–12 teachers and leaders in the HLPs. The practices provide a shared language for examining teaching, designing professional learning, coaching and supporting teachers, and thinking about how novices develop the knowledge and skill needed for classroom practice.
What have we learned since 2012?
The 2026 list is not a major overhaul. Most of the practices have been part of our framework for more than fifteen years. Instead, we have refined the list to make some commitments more visible, clarify the purposes of particular practices, and better reflect the demands of teaching.
One important change is a more explicit emphasis on equity. Two practices—acknowledging competence and attending to identity in interactions with students and families—are now named as stand-alone practices. This work was present in the original list, but we came to believe that its importance was not sufficiently visible. Teachers play an important role in shaping who is seen as competent in a classroom and what counts as competence. They also need to attend carefully to how their own identities and ways of communicating can contribute to or constrain their relationships with students and families.
We have also expanded the practice formerly called eliciting and interpreting student thinking to include responding to student thinking. Eliciting and interpreting what students know and think is only part of the work; teachers must use what they learn to make decisions about what to do or say next.
Another change reflects the increasing availability and use of high-quality instructional materials (HQIM). Rather than assuming that teachers will routinely design lessons and sequences of lessons from scratch, the revised list names the practice of preparing for teaching using instructional materials. Teachers need to be able to analyze materials carefully, understand their content and instructional purposes, and adapt and supplement them thoughtfully for their students and contexts.
We have also clarified the names of several practices and incorporated some former practices into others where we found that the work was better understood as part of a larger practice.
These changes reflect an important principle behind the HLPs: there is no single, perfect way to divide up the work of teaching. What matters is that a list of practices makes consequential aspects of teaching visible and helps teachers and teacher educators study those aspects while keeping them connected to the larger purposes of instruction.
What remains at the center
Across the revisions, our central commitments remain much the same. We believe that all students deserve opportunities to learn worthwhile knowledge and skills at high levels; that learning is an active process of sense-making; that teaching is interactive and relational work; that the contexts in which students and teachers live and learn matter; and that teaching should foster students’ identities and support their academic, personal, social, emotional, and civic development.
These commitments are reflected throughout the 18 practices on the new list—from leading a group discussion and eliciting, interpreting, and responding to student thinking to learning about students, setting learning goals, preparing for teaching using instructional materials, designing, adapting, and using formative assessments, and analyzing instruction for the purpose of improving it.
The practices are not intended to be a checklist or a set of scripts. Teaching is too complex for that. Instead, the HLPs help make visible aspects of teaching that can otherwise become difficult to see, particularly as teachers become more experienced. By decomposing practices into their constituent areas of work, we can give teachers and teacher educators tools for studying, practicing, coaching, and improving teaching while keeping sight of why those practices matter for students.
Exploring the new HLPs with us
Over the coming weeks, TeachingWorks will be inviting educators to explore the revised HLPs in greater depth. Our campaign will include:
- A new report that includes our updated list of HLPs and their short descriptions, unpacks the foundational ideas about teaching and learning that undergird them, and offers guidance about how the practices can be used in teacher education and PK–12 professional learning.
- Weekly resources focused on individual high-leverage practices, with opportunities to explore their decompositions and related TeachingWorks resources.
- A webinar, High-Leverage Practices, Revisited: Introducing the New TeachingWorks List, where we’ll introduce the revised list, explain what has changed and why, answer questions, and highlight resources for putting the HLPs to work.
- A series of blog posts exploring the ideas behind the revisions and the role of high-leverage practices in teacher education and PK–12 professional learning.
- Resources in the TeachingWorks Resource Library, including decompositions, examples, and tools for studying and developing practice.
We hope you’ll follow TeachingWorks on LinkedIn and Facebook throughout the campaign for weekly updates and access to new resources.
The work of teaching continues to evolve, and teachers continue to learn throughout their careers. The revised TeachingWorks HLPs are intended to support that ongoing learning by providing a common language for consequential aspects of teaching—and practical resources for studying, practicing, and improving them.
We invite you to explore the new list with us.