We ask a lot from professional development.
We expect a workshop, a keynote, or a series of learning sessions to introduce new ideas, challenge long-standing thinking, build knowledge and skills, and ultimately change what happens for students in classrooms. That is a tall order, especially when the work involves more than learning a new strategy. It involves changing how we think about teaching and learning.
Universal Design for Learning has become an increasingly important part of the global movement toward more inclusive education. It is reflected in United Nations guidance on inclusive and equitable education, embedded in U.S. federal education policy, and supported by a growing research base. Most recently, Guo and Wang (2025) found strong positive outcomes when UDL was implemented with high fidelity, including greater student achievement, engagement, and belonging.
Districts are responding by investing considerable time, energy, and budget in training teachers to better support the needs of diverse learners. But too often, after this initial investment is made, the momentum fades.
Even the best UDL PD can only do so much.
The truth is that taking ideas from professional development and putting them into practice with real students, real curriculum, limited planning time, and a dozen other priorities competing for attention is really challenging, especially when teachers are expected to carry that work alone. What happens next determines whether UDL becomes part of everyday practice or slowly fades into the background.
So why does UDL professional learning sometimes fail to stick, and what can we do differently?
Great professional learning should inspire educators, challenge their thinking, and give them practical strategies they are excited to put into practice. In our own trainings, we intentionally model UDL throughout the learning experience. Educators experience firm goals and flexible means, engage with practical examples, collaborate around problems of practice, reflect on their own learning, and consider how UDL can strengthen what they are already doing. Our goal is for educators to leave not only understanding UDL, but believing it is possible and knowing where to begin. But even the most powerful professional learning cannot end when the training does. The real challenge is creating the structures that help educators turn what they learned into sustained changes in practice.
Research reinforces the importance of that continued support. A 2025 study published in Scientific Reports by Guo and Wang found that institutions relying on one-time training events showed initial gains that plateaued after six months, with minimal sustained growth. Meanwhile, “faculty participating in comprehensive, multi-year professional development programs showed steady improvement throughout the study period, with knowledge scores increasing by 78% and implementation confidence growing by 65%.”
UDL requires more than learning a new set of instructional strategies. It requires a shift in how educators think about learner variability and their own role in responding to it. Instead of waiting until a student struggles and then asking, “What does this student need?” educators begin to anticipate variability from the start and ask, “Where might learners experience barriers, and how can we design more flexible pathways without compromising the goal?”
That shift takes time. Educators need opportunities to try new practices, reflect on the impact on learners, gather feedback from learners and colleagues, and make adjustments. Over time, UDL becomes less about adding strategies to individual lessons and more about developing a different way of thinking about learning design. That kind of change simply cannot happen in a single professional learning session.
If we want UDL to become part of everyday practice, we have to think beyond the professional learning session itself and intentionally create the conditions that support implementation over time. So, what can we do to help professional learning translate into lasting changes in practice? Here are five places to start.
Imagine a school brings in a facilitator for a full day of UDL professional development. Teachers leave with new ideas and a commitment to try something differently. Meanwhile, the principal is pulled into another meeting, responding to an urgent issue, or managing one of the many responsibilities competing for their attention.
This is a common reality in schools. It’s also a missed opportunity. Research from Wang and Guo (2025) identified administrative support as one of the most important factors in teachers’ implementation of new practices. When leaders learn alongside their staff, they can build on that learning long after the PD ends by reinforcing shared priorities, making space for collaboration, recognizing progress, and supporting teachers as they put new practices into action.
When schools invest in UDL, leaders have an important role in helping that investment translate into sustained changes in practice. Teachers may be doing the day-to-day work of implementing UDL, but leaders create many of the conditions that allow that work to grow. They conduct observations, set priorities, plan professional learning, and make decisions about schedules, collaboration, and resources. When leaders understand what educators are learning and learn alongside them when possible, they are better positioned to reinforce and support that work over time.
Leadership participation is about more than attending PD, although being part of the learning is valuable. Leaders need enough understanding of UDL to recognize effective implementation, celebrate progress, identify barriers, and support continued growth. They can ask questions such as: What barriers are students experiencing? How are students being supported to make purposeful choices? Are our supports increasing student independence? What evidence tells us this change is working?
When leaders learn alongside teachers and continue the conversation after formal professional learning ends, UDL becomes a shared commitment, with educators and leaders working together to create more inclusive learning experiences for all students.
A great workshop can build knowledge and generate excitement, but excitement naturally fades. If no one ever comes back to ask, “What did you try? What happened? What are you working on next?” UDL can easily get pushed aside.
Think about the last professional development session you attended. You probably left with at least one idea you genuinely intended to use. Did you?
That gap between intention and implementation is exactly why one-and-done professional development rarely creates lasting change. Learning something new is only the beginning. Educators need opportunities to try new practices, see what happens, receive feedback, reflect, and make adjustments.
The greatest opportunity often comes after the workshop ends. Teachers may leave with a reflection, a goal, or a practice they are excited to try. When schools intentionally revisit those goals in the weeks and months that follow, educators have opportunities to reflect on what they are learning, celebrate progress, work through challenges, and determine their next steps.
For example, at the end of PD, teachers might identify one barrier they want to address and one change they will try. During the next PLC, they bring back evidence of what happened. A coach might observe the lesson and provide feedback. Teachers might collect student feedback or examine student work. At the next professional learning session, they reflect on what they learned and what they want to try next.
That simple cycle shifts professional learning from a single event to an ongoing process of learning, application, reflection, and refinement.
UDL implementation is stronger when educators have opportunities to learn with and from one another. Professional learning can introduce new ideas and build shared understanding, but collaboration gives educators the time and space to figure out what those ideas look like within their own curriculum and context.
According to the study by Guo and Wang, “faculty working in collaborative implementation environments reported 47% higher implementation confidence and demonstrated 34% better classroom observation scores compared to those implementing UDL in isolation.”
Consider something as foundational as instructional clarity. A teacher may know that a clear learning objective and success criteria should drive decisions about flexible means and still wrestle with questions like: What is the actual learning goal in tomorrow’s algebra lesson? Which parts of the task need to remain firm, and where can I provide flexibility? Which supports will increase access without changing the rigor of the goal? How can I help students make purposeful decisions about which supports they need and when they are ready for greater independence?
Those are exactly the kinds of questions that benefit from time to think, plan, experiment, and learn with colleagues. Schools that want UDL to become part of everyday practice can make room for that work within collaborative structures that already exist. During common planning, identify potential barriers in an upcoming unit. In a PLC, examine student work and ask which learners are not yet making progress and why. During grade-level meetings, share a strategy that increased student independence. Use department time to redesign an assessment that consistently creates barriers.
This is also how implementation becomes more manageable. One teacher doesn’t have to create every resource, solve every problem, or come up with every idea. Teams can divide the work, share what they create, and learn from one another.
“I don’t have time to do all of this.” If you have facilitated UDL professional development, you have probably heard some version of this. And depending on how UDL has been presented, teachers may have a point.
If educators walk away believing every lesson needs multiple versions of the text, three different activities, five choices for demonstrating understanding, a new technology tool, and an elaborate choice board, we haven't made UDL sustainable. We have made it exhausting. But here is the thing: UDL is not about creating endless options.
Instead of adding more, one of our favorite strategies is to look for opportunities for flexibility within the curriculum teachers are already using. Take planning a piece of writing. Students might plan independently before talking through their ideas with a partner, or they might start by discussing ideas with peers. They might organize their thinking with a graphic organizer, a topic outline, sticky notes, or a digital tool. The expectation that students plan their writing stays firm, while how they plan can be flexible.
UDL shouldn't require teachers to spend Sunday afternoon creating twelve different versions of Monday's lesson. If implementation consistently feels like more and more work, we need to examine how we ask teachers to implement it and what they can do differently to make it achievable and sustainable.
At some point during UDL professional learning, someone almost always asks, “Okay, but what does this actually look like in a classroom?” And it’s an important question.
We can talk about learner variability, barriers, firm goals and flexible means, and learner agency. We can share practical strategies and examples. But educators also need opportunities to see how all of this comes together with real students, real curriculum, limited time, and the unpredictability that comes with teaching.
This is where lab classrooms can be incredibly powerful. A lab classroom is not a showcase where educators come to watch someone who has somehow perfected UDL. It is a structure for collaborative professional learning in a real classroom. Educators enter with a shared focus or question, observe instruction and student learning, collect evidence connected to that focus, and then debrief together afterward.
For example, teachers might look specifically for how instructional clarity supports students in making purposeful choices or how students use supports independently. The conversation isn't, “Was that teacher doing UDL correctly?” It is, “What did we notice about the learning, and what can we learn from it?”
Schools can create other opportunities to make practice visible too. Coaches can model lessons. Teams can conduct instructional rounds or learning walks. Teachers can share lesson plans, student work, or short videos of practice. Staff meetings can include five-minute “here’s what I tried” spotlights.
Encourage sharing the messy examples, not just the wins. A teacher who tried offering students more choice and discovered that students needed more support making those choices has something valuable to teach colleagues. So does the teacher whose first attempt at a new routine flopped and whose second attempt worked much better.
When educators see colleagues experimenting, reflecting, and improving, UDL becomes attainable. They begin to see implementation not as mastering a framework but as an ongoing process of designing, noticing, learning, and adjusting.
Sustainability starts with a plan that extends beyond a single professional learning experience or even a single school year. Effective models weave together three key components: foundational learning, job-embedded support, and strong leadership.
Foundational learning builds shared understanding of UDL and gives educators practical strategies they can begin using. Job-embedded learning creates opportunities to apply those ideas, collaborate with colleagues, examine evidence, receive feedback, and refine practice over time. Strong leaders build a shared vision, structures, and conditions that allow UDL to become part of how the system works.
Over time, the goal is not for educators to need more and more UDL training. It is to build the collective capacity to design for learner variability as part of everyday practice. Teachers become more confident anticipating barriers and designing flexible pathways. Students become more purposeful in understanding what they need and using the supports available to them. Leaders become better equipped to recognize, support, and celebrate growth.
That is when UDL begins to stick. Not because everyone attended the training, but because the system has created the conditions for everyone to keep learning.
If you're a school or district leader looking to move from one-time training to lasting practice, Novak Education can help you build a step-by-step plan tailored to your goals, your team, and your learners.
Because learning about UDL is only the beginning. Educators return to full schedules, existing curriculum, competing priorities, and classrooms where implementation is rarely as simple as it seemed during professional learning. Without structured opportunities to revisit the work, collaborate, reflect on evidence, and receive feedback, new practices can be difficult to sustain over time. That is why ongoing support matters. Coaching, PLCs, classroom observations, collaborative planning, and leadership involvement can help educators continue to apply, refine, and strengthen UDL as part of everyday practice.
Leadership involvement is essential. When principals and district leaders learn alongside educators, visit classrooms, celebrate progress, allocate time and resources, and keep UDL connected to existing priorities, they create the conditions for implementation to grow and become part of everyday practice.
Novak Education partners with districts to design multi-year implementation plans that may include professional learning, coaching, leadership development, collaborative learning structures, and implementation resources. The goal is to build internal capacity so educators and leaders can continue learning, refining practice, and sustaining the work over time. Contact us to learn more.
Absolutely, and we encourage it. MTSS is the larger system that brings together high-quality instructional materials and practices, assessment, professional learning, collaboration, leadership, tiered supports, and the structures needed to continuously improve outcomes for all learners. UDL is an essential part of that system because it helps educators proactively design Tier 1 instruction to reduce barriers, respond to learner variability, and build learner agency. Rather than implementing UDL and MTSS as separate initiatives, schools can use UDL as a critical part of a coherent MTSS.
Online courses can provide educators with greater flexibility to learn at their own pace and on their own schedule. Novak Education offers courses designed using UDL principles, with flexible ways to engage with content and options for graduate credit or license renewal. When online learning is paired with opportunities to apply ideas, collaborate with colleagues, receive feedback, and reflect on practice, it can be a powerful part of a larger professional learning plan. Explore our course library.
Guo, P., Wang, Z. Implementation fidelity of universal design for learning and effects on student achievement engagement and belonging. Sci Rep 15, 45430 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-30079-1