Improved Student Performance: Reading
Research shows that all schools using School Improvement Network’s educator effectiveness system improved reading assessment scores significantly, with higher frequency users raising assessment scores by 18 percent, or at nearly four times the rate of improvement compared to their districts.
Improved Student Performance: Math
As in reading, all schools using the tools in School Improvement Network’s educator effectiveness system achieved improved math scores, with higher frequency users improving by 18.9 percent —over 30 times the rate of improvement compared to their own districts.
Fewer Dropouts; More Students College Bound
Dropout rates decreased by 20 percent in schools that frequently used the tools in School Improvement Network’s educator effectiveness system.
What’s more, the number of students who said they planned on attending college increased by 9.6 percent in schools with a higher frequency of use.
An Example of Success: Wilson County Gains Insight into Theory and Practice
The Wilson County School System is located in Lebanon, Tenn., and serves approximately 15,000 students at 21 sites.
Wilson County strives to obtain the best teachers and administrators possible, knowing this will directly affect the success of their students. Of the 991 people employed in positions that require state certification, approximately 48 percent have attained an educational degree at the master’s level or higher. The district also has lowered student-teacher ratios, increased the number of teaching assistants and counselors, and added school nurses as a way of providing better service to students.
Monty Wilson, supervisor of curriculum and instruction at Wilson County Schools, was introduced to PD 360 (www.pd360.com) at the end of the school year and decided to use the summer downtime to test the free trial offer. It proved to be everything the district wanted in a professional development management system and more.
PD 360, one of the tools in School Improvement Network’s educator effectiveness system, is an on-demand library of professional teacher development resources that leverages technology to make professional development more effective, convenient, and sustainable.
With more than 200 hours of research-based video content, plus tools for follow-up, tracking, reflection, and group training, PD 360 is used by more than 700,000 educators across North America to access individualized support on the most relevant topics, like differentiated instruction, minority student achievement, English language learners, classroom instruction that works, leadership, assessment, and more.
PD 360’s content is divided into hundreds of indexed and searchable segments that make it easy for teachers, administrators, aspiring leaders, coaches, mentors, paraprofessionals, and professional learning communities to find the answers they need. New content is continually added to keep educators up to date.
Wilson County decided to introduce PD 360 in midyear by training the administrators and a few selected teachers. These teachers then went back to their groups and trained the others. Here are some of the ways the district implements PD 360:
- ‘Buyer’s remorse’ dogging Common Core rollout - October 30, 2014
- Calif. law targets social media monitoring of students - October 2, 2014
- Elementary world language instruction - September 25, 2014