Florida School District Takes Teacher Development and Evaluation Digital
Liberty County School District (LCSD) has taken its teacher evaluation and professional development processes from paper-based to digital in an effort to provide more timely and relevant feedback to teachers.
To make the change the district chose Teachscape to provide software, online content, and services intended to allow LCSD educators to assess their skills and competencies, collaborate with colleagues, and build their expertise.
As part of the program, district administrators will get training in teacher evaluation via the Teachscape Focus observation training and assessment system and the Framework for Teaching, which has been adopted in more than 20 states as the basis for professional learning and teacher evaluation.
"The adoption of Teachscape and the use of Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching will help us move from a paper- and compliance-based teacher evaluation system to one that truly delivers quality professional development and drives teacher effectiveness," said Kathy Nobles, director of administration at LCSD, in a release. "Teachscape's technology will streamline the overall teacher evaluation process and allow us to focus more on continuous improvement for our educators."
The Teachscape training and evaluation system is comprised of four programs, including:
- Teachscape Focus, according to the company Web site, seeks to establish a common language for describing teaching at all performance levels, create shared expectations for evaluation of teaching practice, and conduct classroom observations that are accurate and consistent;
- Teachscape Reflect enables the district to configure evaluation processes and workflows to the district's processes to evaluate teacher groups. The district can also add and edit rubrics and surveys for walkthroughs and observations, import planning and review forms such as pre- and post-observation forms, goal-setting forms, and self-assessment forms, and use pre-defined formulas and weighting rules to calculate summative evaluation scores;
- Teachscape Learn is a learning management system for professional development, featuring access to more than 160 courses and 2,500 videos of classroom practice, expert commentary, and interactive exercises, along with video sharing and capture tools and support for implementation of the Common Core State Standards;
- Teachscape Advance is a "talent management system," according to the company Web site, which "allows a district to identify and strategically develop, distribute, and align its staff's skills and experience to achieve district-level goals, enhance employee satisfaction and effectiveness, increase retention, and advance student achievement."
More information is available at teachscape.com.
About the Author
Kevin Hudson is a freelance journalist based in Portland, Oregon. He can be reached at [email protected].