A few weeks ago I posted a poll on LinkedIn. Dead simple question. When an outside trainer comes into your school to deliver a session, what's the usual outcome?
Around 100 people voted. 57% said "engaging, but nothing changes." 30% said "short-lived impact." 11% said it was a waste of time from the start.
And lasting change in practice? 1%. One person.
Now look, it's a LinkedIn poll. Tiny sample. But the pattern it shows is real, and a major new report from the Teacher Development Trust just confirmed it at serious scale. Over 1,000 teachers and leaders surveyed across England. Nearly four in ten said CPD hadn't clearly improved their ability to do their job. Only 15% said there was any meaningful follow-up after training. And the formats that actually work best, coaching, peer observation, collaborative inquiry, were the ones schools use least.
I recorded a solo episode this week unpacking all of it. The data, what it means, and what you can do about it. You can listen here: Why CPD Keeps Failing
But the thing that keeps coming back to me isn't the data. It's the question underneath it.
How much of your CPD budget is being spent on things that feel productive versus things that are productive?
Because every school leader I work with has good intentions about professional development. The intent is almost never the problem. The problem is the design. And the follow-up. And the question nobody wants to ask: does the person delivering this CPD actually have the time, the training, and the support to do it well?
If your professional development culture depends on one person, or one external provider, you don't have a culture. You have a dependency. And when that person leaves, or when the provider's contract ends, so does the change.
That's the bit I keep coming back to. Building something that stays even when people don't.
If you listened to the episode or have thoughts on how your school handles this, I'd love to hear from you. Just hit reply and tell me what's working, or what isn't.
Shane
PS. If you're looking at your CPD approach and thinking "yeah, we're probably in that 57%," the ICA International Leaders Conference might be worth a look. I'm partnering with the ICA on it, 7 and 8 May, two half-day virtual sessions on sustaining change. Tom Sherrington's speaking too. And we're doing a Red Envelope thing where if you book a place, you can gift one to an emerging leader.
Listen to the latest episode
Click here to listen to this week's episode of my chart-topping podcast, Education Leaders