Professional Learning and Leading Collaborative

Teaching, Leading and Learning in the Age of Complexity

The Professional Learning and Leading Collaborative promotes pedagogical shifts that engage educators at all levels, providing research based, job-embedded models and approaches for strategic planning and professional development with the belief that students deserve access to equitable personalized learning experiences. The members of our dedicated team are educational leaders who have extensive experience in strategic planning, leadership support and development, data-driven decision-making, and professional development planning and design that is customized and responsive to the needs of today’s schools.

Who We Are

Meet the team.

The PLACE

See our online professional learning platform.

What We Do

Learn more about our current and past projects.

Connect with Us

Our Impact

2,014

Educators Receiving Professional Development
(2021-2022 SY)

31,243

Online
Learners
(Since June 2023)

760

Microcredentials Awarded
(Since June 2023)

A teacher sits on the floor of a classroom with a student. They are sitting on a colorful rug with papers and a folder strewn on the floor in front of them. They are talking and looking through the papers.

Cultivating Equity in Education Through Equity-Mindedness

The Professional Learning and Leadership Collaborative has created a series of learning opportunities designed to build educator capacity to address diverse learning needs across the educational system. We have designed online and blended learning programs for students, teachers, instructional coaches, principals and higher education faculty/staff.

Learn more about our programs

A teacher and student work together in front of a laptop in a classroom

Amplifying Teaching and Learning Through Technology

After years of behind-the-scenes research, planning, collaboration, facilitation and evaluation, the Friday Institute’s instrumental role in the North Carolina Digital Learning Initiative led to every single student (1.5 million) and teacher in all 115 school districts in North Carolina having access to unlimited broadband in their classrooms—the first state in the nation to tout this accomplishment.

Creating Capacity for Innovation Across Education Systems

Friday Institute online courses are built on research-based models of effective professional development and learning communities that focus on job-embedded, peer-supported and self-directed learning. Since its start in 2013, over 80,000 people from all 50 states and more than 160 countries have registered for these courses. With the onset of COVID-19, the project saw a tenfold increase in participants in the spring of 2020—serving more than 25,000 participants and making 2020 the project’s most successful year of courses.

Learn more about these courses

[PLLC] helped us to be able to prioritize what we would like to do moving forward to grow our grant initiatives and grow all our stakeholders – especially students.
Cohort Participant
North Carolina Digital Learning Plan

Featured Project: Virtual Schools Network

The Virtual Schools Network (VSN) is a partnership between the Friday Institute and NCVirtual that supports and connects traditional virtual public schools. The VSN creates capacity building opportunities, designs quality courses, assesses technology needs and establishes support structures to assist in scaling for size and planning for sustainability.

Learn More

Two people, a man and a woman, chat and smile in a large meeting room while the woman holds a laptop in her hands.

Empowering Educational Transformation: Navigating AI Integration with the PLLC

The Professional Learning and Leading Collaborative (PLLC) at the Friday Institute comprises a passionate and skilled team of educators and experts who share a unified mission: to drive innovation and inspire transformation within the field of education. Our primary focus is on the seamless integration of cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), into educational practices, thus enabling schools and districts to flourish in an era of educational advancement.

Learn more

A woman presents something on a screen to three observers

Computer Science Professional Development

The Friday Institute partners with educational leaders and policy makers from the school to national level to create opportunities for ALL students in North Carolina to explore computer science.

Learn more