"Dr. Barbara Blackburn delivered an exceptionally well-designed professional development program for our PS35X staff this school year. Her virtual series sessions on classroom rigor demonstrated deep expertise and thoughtful progression, moving from student motivation and foundational concepts to practical assignment development and scaffolding strategies. Despite the virtual format, she maintained high engagement through interactive activities and meaningful discussions, including a valuable leadership session for administrators.

The program's strength lay in its practical application focus. Dr. Blackburn had teachers assess real tasks for rigor levels, develop improvement strategies, and create scaffolding for their own classroom assignments. Her ongoing commitment has been equally impressive—regular check-ins and follow-up articles have sustained momentum and provided continued learning opportunities well beyond the initial sessions".

"Although this was a virtual training , it was a very engaging class. Ms. Blackburn did an amazing job of providing useful information, making it interesting, answering questions and providing time for peer collaboration. The time spent designing the lessons allowed us to make a real-word connection to the learning that had taken place over the previous days.  The printed resources will be invaluable as I continue to design my lessons. and I also now have some additional people to turn to for collaboration".

"Barbara's approach to instructional rigor is authentic. The virtual professional learning opportunities are engaging and full of applicable activities, and the ongoing support for instructional leaders and teachers builds on the foundation established in the whole-group professional learning opportunity".

"Dr. Blackburn is a phenomenal author, presenter, and true expert on everything pertaining to educational rigor and leadership! I had the privilege of attending her three-day online PD for my district last summer. Being transparent, I usually do not enjoy professional development, especially during the summers. However, each day I was wowed by her ability to engage and educate us with practical ideas to increase the rigor for our students. She is so down to earth and her presentation style is so interactive, informative, and relevant. My colleagues and I walked away with strategies on how to have students activate higher-order thinking skills and enmesh with content in more meaningful and challenging ways. In addition, she provided so many resources that we were able to walk away with and implement immediately. Dr. Blackburn truly cleared up my misconceptions about rigor. Consequently, I am much more intentional and strategic in my instructional planning and delivery. I look forward to attending her future PDs!"

"Yesterday's online PD session with Dr. Blackburn was amazing! The webinar with her really brought us into a 21st Century, collaborative learning experience as educators. This was the first time my district held PD this way, and it was excellent. I learned more about what rigor really looks like, and I learned practical strategies that I can turn around and use with my students immediately. This was the best PD we've had all year!"