Building a Culture of Career Support that Resonates for Every Educator

By Lisa Andrejko, Ed.D., PowerSchool Education Leadership Advisor

I recently attended a conference where K-12 leaders gathered to share their most innovative programs and practices. Nearly 100 schools of all sizes proudly exhibited initiatives for advancing student achievement, meeting the needs of diverse learners, and preparing kids for a completely new future. With every initiative, I noticed that connecting and analyzing student data was critical to guiding program decisions.

But one concern I kept hearing was how difficult it can be to meet educators’ needs as schools begin to implement these initiatives. It was clear to me that change management processes — and a more personalized approach to professional learning — should be implemented as well.

If schools use student data to guide decisions on innovative education programs, they should also consider how teacher evaluation data can be used to guide decisions on innovative career support.

Too often, evaluation feedback is siloed 

When it comes to meeting educators’ career goals and needs, especially through big change, one of the greatest opportunities I’ve seen for scalable positive impact sits at the intersection of employee evaluations and professional learning.

But in many districts, evaluation data lives in one system, learning activities in another, and workforce decisions elsewhere.

When all this rich talent information is siloed, leaders have no visibility into district-wide strengths, skill gaps, or training effectiveness. In other words, school leaders often struggle to see where educators need direct support and how professional learning investments are tangibly impacting practice.

As a result, professional learning becomes compliance-driven rather than growth-focused, limiting its value for educators.

Why creating value from evaluations matters 

Today, attracting and retaining strong teachers remains a challenge for many districts: between 2023 and 2025, at least 411,549 teaching positions in the U.S. were either unfilled or filled by people not fully certified for their assignments, representing about 1 in 8 of all teaching positions nationally.  

As K-12 leaders face increasing pressure to fill these vacancies (along with growing workloads and tightening budgets), they’d be remiss not to prioritize personalized career development so that: 

1. Teachers feel connected to their workplace and profession 
2. Teachers can confidently pivot as new strategic initiatives unfold 
3. Staffing shortages don’t get worse 

An easy way to do this at scale is to link evaluation data to professional learning pathways. PowerSchool’s evaluation software Perform integrates with PowerSchool’s Professional Learning platform so that principals can quickly pinpoint individual needs and strengths and then make a customized plan.

By connecting evaluations and professional learning, districts can not only provide more meaningful support to individuals, but they can also save time — because when data is clear and accessible, leaders can act on it. For example, if a new teacher is struggling with student engagement, a principal with easy access to supervision data analytics can quickly see which teachers consistently receive high ratings in student engagement. Then, she can work to connect the teacher who’s struggling with a great new mentor.

Ultimately, talent data visibility enables teams to act fast and establish more holistic and relevant career support initiatives like: 

• Mentoring and instructional coaching programs
• Teacher-led communities of practice 
• Self-paced learning opportunities 

As you can imagine, these investments have the power to strengthen teacher satisfaction and retention over time. 

Personalized professional learning is on everyone’s mind 

The most important resources your organization has are the educators who create conditions for student success. K-12 leaders understand this. According to PowerSchool’s 2026 K-12 EdTech Pulse, a national survey created in partnership with Project Tomorrow, evaluation and coaching are school and district administrators’ #1 talent priority this year.  

And like me, many educators are already thinking about ways that technology can support their own professional learning: 

• Nearly half of 673 teachers and administrators (48%) say that technology could help aggregate student data outcomes and connect those outcomes to professional objectives. 
• Nearly 2 in 5 teachers and administrators (37%) say that technology could help facilitate self-directed learning and allow teachers to more efficiently track their goals and progress. 

These examples show that teachers want to be part of a culture that centers continuous improvement — a culture where personal feedback and data lead to clear and resonant professional learning opportunities. A culture where districts can easily track what’s working, or not working, and pivot quickly if needed.

For both new and seasoned educators, time is valuable. Time can’t be wasted on “one-size-fits-all” models of professional development. Instead, professional learning should be customized based on data from teacher evaluations.

Put simply, teacher evaluations should be a catalyst for growth, not a standalone process.

Feedback should initiate forward movement without any friction.

I strongly believe this connected approach to professional learning will help keep the people who power your district engaged, creating a culture of truly effective support.