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Small Virginia District Provides Relevant PD for All Teachers

www.schoolimprovement.com | www.PD360.com

MANASSAS CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS, VIRGINIA

Case StudySchool Improvement Network

“Teachers can no longer use the excuse that there is no relevancy or significance for them in our professional development program. A large variety of options is the beauty of PD 360 and there is relevance for everyone.” Dr. Michaelene Meyer Deputy Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Manassas City Public Schools, Virginia

Manassas City Public Schools (MCPS) is located in Manassas City, Virginia, “a small community that provides big opportunities to its residents.” As a district of 6,866 students in ten schools, its size is also a plus and allows the staff to get to know the children as individuals and develop personal education plans to make sure that those individual needs are met. The district benefits from all the advantages a smaller city offers and feels a true sense of community with a collaborative bond between home and school that works to ensure the success of every student.

Manassas City Public Schools embraces its mission to educate and develop productive, responsible, and contributing citizens of local and global communities. It is a school system that enjoys diversity as a challenging and balanced learning experience. The dedicated and highly qualified staff is equipped with ample resources and vital partnerships with family, community, business, and government.

MCPS is very proud of its outstanding instructional staff.

•18 National Board Certified Teachers

•100% Highly Qualified Teachers (per No Child Left Behind requirements)

•52.3% Licensed staff with post-graduate degrees

Even with an extraordinary teaching staff, MCPS has an ongoing desire to continually better its professional development (PD) in order to provide excellent student education. This means giving its teachers the most comprehensive PD available.

Dr. Michaelene Meyer, MCPS Deputy Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, wanted to hike up the quality as well as streamline the PD process. She looked for a job-embedded resource that teachers could access immediately when they needed it and experience immediate success.

Dr. Meyer had been a dedicated user of School Improvement Network’s The Video Journal of Education video products for many years. When she was introduced to PD 360, also from School Improvement Network, she knew she had found a high-quality answer for MCPS.

PD 360 is the leading on-demand professional learning resource for educators with over 700,000 subscribers. Teachers, administrators, professional learning communities, coaches, etc., have access to over 1,400 indexed and searchable video segments that present real, best-practice classroom examples. Each segment includes content from respected educational experts

DISTRICT PROFILE

FOCUS

SOLUTION

ABOUT PD 360

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such as Michael Fullan, Rick DuFour, Doug Reeves, Rick Stiggins, and many others. PD 360 can be used to create a structured learning experience for an individual teacher, professional learning community, or entire school. It bridges the gap between training and classroom implementation with job-embedded follow-up, tracking, and reflection tools. PD 360 also gives educators access to an online community of teaching professionals that allows interaction and collaboration either within a district or across the United States and around the world. See a demonstration at www.pd360.com.

One year into its use, Dr. Meyer has already put many applications of PD 360 into place, such as: GOAL: ACTION:First Year All Educators

Registered on PD 360

Required to Watch Two Segments & Answer Reflection Questions

Second Year English Language Learners – A District Wide Approach

Everyone Watch and Complete Whole ELL Program & Use in PLC’s, Forums, & Faculty Meetings

Third Year Implementation and Targeted Goals

Principals Make Building Level Plan to Align with District Plan

> English Language Learners MCPS is having great success with its ELL training framework. During the coming school year, MCPS will be using PD 360 for an all-inclusive district wide approach to its 38% ELL population. PD 360 ELL segments will be used in faculty meetings, PLC’s, and forums to educate and start discussions on strategies and accommodations that actively involve ELL students in learning.

> New Teacher Training MCPS has re-vamped its entire beginning teaching program with the use of PD 360 integrated into seminars, with follow-up guides for the PLC meetings they hold between seminars. Because Dr. Meyer feels it is important to train new teachers to use PD 360, they are immediately introduced to it as a teaching resource. When there is an issue in their classrooms, they can be directed to segments of programs such as Classroom Management, Differentiated Instruction, and many more. PD 360 is also a good base for helping new teachers understand implementation of the district and school goals.

> Teachers Who Struggle Principals were trained and are now helping teachers who struggle by suggesting specific PD 360 segments that show what best classroom practices look like in needed areas. Each teacher’s usage as well as their answers to Reflection and Follow-Up Questions can be tracked by the administration to follow growth.

> Walk Throughs Getting principals into the classrooms has a huge impact on teacher training. As principals do classroom walk-throughs, they can email specific PD 360 segment links that are relevant to the instructional needs of the teachers while providing easy and effective, job-embedded follow-up. Being able to quickly provide instant remediation on many issues has been beneficial to both principals and teachers alike.

> Group Trainings PD 360 makes it easy to personalize group training. The digitized Facilitator Guides that accompany video programs provide assistance as district facilitators prepare training sessions. Video segments are shared with a group of teachers and PD 360’s automated reflection questions are assigned to help teachers implement new strategies. The trainer can read teachers’ answers and provide suggestions and feedback.

Each department chair asked to be trained in PD 360 and are now using segments to help share information in department meetings.

> Professional Learning Communities PD 360 supports PLCs and gives them a solid resource to study. PLCs watch a PD 360 video segment and discuss how to apply the practices in their classrooms. The accompanying digitized Facilitator Guides provide group activities, discussion questions, lesson plans, and graphic organizers.

> Teacher Certification Dr. Meyer is working on and is excited to put into action a program for teacher certification wherein PD 360 time viewed and Reflection Questions answered will be tracked and applied as credit.

> Interactive Learning Communities Through Interactive Learning Communities, teachers present each other with implementation ideas, participate in discussion forums, upload lesson plans, and share web links to helpful resources. Learning Communities can be created as public or private domains in which teachers and administrators can share best practices, learn from one another, and eliminate classroom isolation regardless of location.

DRIVING USAGE AND IMPLEMENTATION

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MCPS is experiencing many advantages as part of having the PD 360 package.

> Cost Effective PD 360 has been very cost-effective for MCPS. Costing much less than traditional professional development, it can be purchased with a variety of funding sources available to districts and schools, including Title I, II, III, IV, V, VII, state funds, foundation funds, federal and state grant monies, math funds, reading funds, technology funds, etc. For example, MCPS has been able to pay for PD 360 with Title II funds.

> Elementary and Secondary Programs Dr. Meyer was delighted to find a PD resource that offered both Elementary-Focused and Secondary-Centered programs. This provides instruction that is geared to each teacher’s classroom level.

> Great Educator Response Teacher response to PD 360 has been excellent. As they are introduced to it, educators generally start using the easy search ability feature of the PD 360 website to research more topics.

> User Capacity With one price, educators have unlimited access to PD 360 and can view segments and programs as many times as they wish and as often as they need.

> Accessible Because PD 360 is an online and on-demand solution, teachers in the system can access it anytime and anywhere they have the Internet. They can log on at home as well as at work, encouraging teacher education on their own time schedule.

> Individual Accountability With PD 360, teachers are responsible for their own professional growth and administrators can ensure that it happens consistently with PD 360’s integrated tracking, reporting, and follow-up. This strengthens teacher commitment which translates into positive changes in the classroom.

> State Approval The Virginia Department of Education is very familiar with School Improvement Network’s PD 360 and has been supportive and favorable of its use in districts.

> Large Library of Content Over 120 respected education experts are available at each MCPS teacher’s fingertips whenever they need them. Dr. Meyer no longer has the frustration of not sending everyone to conferences because of the high costs associated with them. Now educators do not have to wait to attend workshops and conferences yet can learn from the best authorities.

> Job Embedded Professional development should not be identical for each teacher but should be responsive to a teacher’s day-to-day practices in school and student needs. As questions and situations arise in classrooms, teachers can instantly find answers in PD 360 to improve teaching and give support when needed instead of waiting for district workshops. The wide variety of content in PD 360 ensures that teachers of every experience level can find individualized help when they need it.

> Relevant Topics New, quality content is continually being added to the up-to-date PD 360 library providing a resource that helps teachers continue to grow professionally. PD 360 has programs dealing with nearly every educational initiative of the past two decades.

> Research Based and Best Practices PD 360 programs are always research-based and classroom-proven, dealing with nearly every educational initiative of the past two decades. Each program shows real classrooms from around the country using the best teaching methods.

> A Common Voice PD 360 encourages consistency in a common language and practice. The Focus Objectives support a more efficient, focused commonality with all educators in the district.

> Individual Accountability Teachers are empowered to take control of their own growth by having everything they need to improve their teaching in one place. Administrators can ensure that PD happens consistently with PD 360’s integrated tracking, reporting, and follow-up.

> Easy-to-Use Search Features With hundreds of fully indexed and searchable learning segments, teachers and administrators can easily find the answers they require. PD 360 has everything MCPS teachers need to immediately improve their teaching and implement the best classroom practices.

> Real Classroom Examples Dr. Meyer has been pleased with the wide variety of real classrooms from across the country that are shown in every PD 360 program so that teachers can actually see how to implement best practices in their own classroom management. “New teachers and teachers who are struggling often can’t visualize themselves putting best practices into action. PD 360 is a link for bringing in visual professional development, which starts meaningful conversations such as “What does this practice mean to us?” and “How can we implement it in our classrooms?” Dr. Michaelene Meyer Deputy Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Manassas City Public Schools, Virginia

BENEFITS

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> Tracking Features Administrators can oversee PD usage with PD 360’s integrated tracking, reporting, and follow-up and will know which areas need extra reinforcement. The logs they are providing are really terrific in terms of how the videos are encouraging discussion and learning.

> Real Experts Over 120 respected education experts are available at each MCPS teacher’s fingertips whenever needed. Educators no longer have to wait to attend conferences, or pay the high costs associated with them, to learn from acclaimed authorities.

Dr. Meyer is insuring that Manassas City Public Schools, the small district in the small town, will continue to enjoy big benefits from PD 360, the most all-inclusive and effective teacher professional development obtainable. “We have more to learn on how to utilize the benefits of the program, but one step at a time.” Dr. Michaelene Meyer Deputy Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Manassas City Public Schools, Virginia

The School Improvement Network is the leading provider of teacher education and teacher training, specializing in on-demand, research-based professional development anytime, anywhere. As the home of The Video Journal of Education, PD 360, and the Leadership and Learning Framework, School Improvement Network’s education training resources focus on the most relevant topics, such as classroom management. The resources also feature top experts such as Michael Fullan and Douglas Reeves, and show how to put theory into practice. With its focus on long-term improvement, sustainability, and greater internal capacity, the School Improvement Network helps its clients close achievement gaps, meet high standards and increase student learning for both elementary education and secondary education. To learn more about School Improvement Network’s dynamic resources, visit www.schoolimprovement.com.

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CONCLUSION