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The average staff member in our dataset logs 25 hours of professional learning a year. But averages hide more than they reveal. Inside the same districts, the top 10% of participants log 59 or more hours annually–over a week of structured learning. The bottom 10% log fewer than 3 hours. We analyzed five years of data from 179,642 staff members to ask a more useful question than "how much PD are we offering?" — are the right people getting the right PD?
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Support staff–paraprofessionals, counselors, librarians, and nurses–average 16.8 tracked hours of PD per year, the lowest of any group in the dataset. That's about two work days of structured learning annually, roughly 33% less than the average teacher. Among teachers, the gap between elementary and secondary is consistent: elementary teachers average 26.9 hours per year while high school teachers average 20.6 — about a third more.
These gaps don't always surface in day-to-day planning. PD decisions happen at the building level, by program, by role — and the aggregate picture of who's being reached across a district can look different from what leadership intended. If a district goal depends on support staff or secondary teachers, the question worth asking is whether the data backs it up.
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Administrators average 28.1 tracked hours per year. Coaches and instructional specialists follow at 27.4, about 12% more than the average teacher and 66% more than support staff. This concentration of PD makes sense: these are roles where professional learning is often built in by design.
The data can't tell you whether that learning flows downstream. A coach with 27 hours of PD who's actively coaching teachers with 8 hours could be a multiplier—their learning becomes support for those teachers. But coaches and teachers could also be on separate tracks, with no connection between the two. It’s worth checking which pattern you're seeing.
In a previous post, we looked at which topics show up most on district PD calendars. Shifting from how often is this on the calendar to how many people attended changes things.
Special Education and Inclusion, the most widely attended topic in the dataset, reached fewer than 16% of all staff over five years. Classroom management reached 7%. Trauma-informed practice, 5.7%. Science of Reading, 5.3%. Data-driven instruction, 1.4%.
These aren't fringe topics. They show up in strategic plans, board presentations, and instructional frameworks across the country. For some goals, training 10% of staff is deeply right. For others, the intention is system-wide. The question: does the reach match the scale of your goals?
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When staff submit session feedback, their follow-up requests split by how much PD they've had. Light attenders are nearly twice as likely to ask for more structured learning- workshops, courses, or self-paced learning. Heavy attenders most often peer collaboration- time to work with colleagues and apply what they already know. The ask shifts from teach me more to let me work with others.
One request stays flat: coaching. About 11% of feedback submissions ask for coaching or mentoring follow-up, regardless of how much PD they've logged. More workshops don’t satisfy the appetite for coaching. It’s a separate need.
If you’re a district leader, here’s what to consider:
Want help turning these insights into action? Connect with a partnerships manager to see how KickUp can help you track PD distribution, identify gaps, and ensure your professional learning reaches the right people.
Methodology: Attendance records from KickUp client districts across 22 states, covering school years 2020-21 through 2024-25 (179,642 unique staff members). Analysis includes only staff members who participated in at least one tracked session. Those with no tracked PD participation are not represented. Per-employee hours calculated from confirmed attendance records only. Role classifications normalized from district-provided role labels when available. School level (elementary, middle, high) inferred from school name field. Topic reach was calculated as the share of unique staff members who attended at least one session on a given topic across the full five-year window, using keyword matching against session names and descriptions. Support request analysis based multiple choice question in 316,904 PD feedback submissions linked to attendance records via hashed employee ID. All findings reflect patterns within tracked PD recorded in KickUp and do not represent total district PD investment.
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