Solution Tree, Inc. is a company that provides professional development services for K-12 educators. The company’s products include education conferences, customized solutions for professional learning, books, videos, and online courses. ¹

Solution Tree sells training services for the critical race theory-inspired pedagogies of “social and emotional learning” and “equity.” ² It also sells what it calls “Race Portable Packages” to school districts. ³

Background

Solution Tree, Inc. is based in Bloomington, Indiana and was founded in 1998. ⁴ It offers books videos and online professional development services. ⁵ It also sells training services for “social and emotional learning” and “equity.” ⁶ The company says it has “worked to transform education worldwide by empowering educators to raise student achievement.” ^{7 8}

Programs

Solution Tree says more than 48,962 educators have attended its professional development events. The company has held more than 8,300 professional development days in schools each year for teachers and administrators. ⁹

Solution Tree has published more than 500 titles and produced several hundred videos and online courses. ¹⁰

In an April 2021 video, Solution Tree staffers encouraged potential clients to go “beyond conversations about race,” and promoted its “Race Portable Event Package,” sold as a way for teachers to “continue their professional growth … to enter into respectful dialogue.” ¹¹

In May 2021, Solution Tree posted another video about a “portable event package” to help teachers reach students “struggling emotionally or academically.” ¹² Solution Tree created Global PD, an online professional development tool to facilitate the work of professional learning communities for more than 20,000 educators. ¹³

The company says its authors and associates have hands-on knowledge as current or former educators and caters to the unique needs of individual school districts. ¹⁴

It published the book “Professional Learning Communities at Work: Best Practices for Enhancing Student Achievement” by Richard DuFour and Robert Eaker in 1998. ¹⁵

The company has pushed what it calls the “PLC movement,” short for Professional Learning Communities. The PLC movement is an international group of educators connecting with one another about student learning. Solution Tree built an “All Things PLC” website to connect practitioners with each other in an online, global learning community. ¹⁶

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9. “New Two-Part Documentary Examines the Genesis of Professional Learning Communities and the Current Practitioners’ Movement.” Solution Tree. September 10, 2021. Accessed December 15, 2021. https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2021/09/10/2295368/0/en/New-Two-Part-Documentary-Examines-the-Genesis-of-Professional-Learning-Communities-and-the-Current-Practitioners-Movement.html
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14. “Solution Tree, Inc.” Relationship Science. Accessed December 15, 2021. https://relationshipscience.com/organization/solution-tree-inc-130776848
15. “Solution Tree.” All Things PLC. Accessed December 15, 2021. https://www.allthingsplc.info/about/solution-tree
16. “Solution Tree.” All Things PLC. Accessed December 15, 2021. https://www.allthingsplc.info/about/solution-tree