Butler County School District (BCSD) in Greenville, AL has selected Teachscape to serve the district’s strategic teacher evaluation and professional learning initiatives. BCSD will provide its administrators and peer coaches with Teachscape’s online training and tools to conduct teacher evaluations. Evaluations will form the basis of a collaborative reflection process and ongoing, individualized professional learning to improve teaching effectiveness in BCSD.
The district is implementing Teachscape’s Teachscape Effectiveness Platform in a strategic, multi-phased approach. The project was undertaken with support from a teacher incentive fund grant designed to help teachers across the district improve upon their instructional practice. Teachscape and Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching (FFT) will assist the district in conducting its ongoing observation, coaching, and self-assessment processes.
“Teachscape’s tools will streamline our evaluation process, making us more efficient in meeting our goals of improving teacher effectiveness,” said Litta Norris, program director of the Butler County Performance Based Incentive Program in Butler County School District. “From observer training and assessment to observations tied to professional development, our administrators and teachers will be able to easily manage this process online.”
The district is currently using the Teachscape Focus observation training and assessment system to train and assess its administrators on how the FFT is applied in observations and evaluations. Once they pass the assessment, administrators and teachers will use the Teachscape Reflect observation and evaluation system to conduct video-based and in-person observations to manage observation progress, and reflect on teaching practice. Educators can then use Teachscape Learn, a video-rich professional learning system, to create individualized professional learning plans, collaborate with colleagues and build relevant skills. Teachscape Learn includes a research-based PreK-12 course library, online learning communities, personalized learning plans, and video capture and sharing tools.
“I am a strong believer in using video as part of the overall professional development process and Teachscape provided us with an integrated online solution to do so,” said Norris. “We are able to provide teachers with more timely feedback and identify relevant professional development sooner. By viewing teachers’ self-recorded videos, coaches can provide guidance even when they don’t have the time to visit classrooms.”
Teachscape Learn will also be instrumental in helping BCSD create a district-wide professional development library of best practice teaching videos. “Teachers will view these videos as part of their professional learning plans to help them hone their skills,” Norris said.
