Challenge
- Provide clear, consistent observation feedback to teachers without overburdening evaluators with extra work
Products & Solutions
Results
- Teachers get the information they need to grow their skills and help students succeed.
- Evaluators now enjoy a streamlined process that’s increased efficiency and improved compliance across the district.
Des Plaines Community Consolidated School District 62 in Illinois advances their academic mission through technology and transforming the way students and staff learn and grow.
They’re doing it so effectively, others are taking notice.
In 2015, the Center for Digital Education named the district’s then Chief Technology Officer, Jennie Magiera, one of their “Top 30 Technologists, Transformers and Trailblazers.” They recognized her efforts to improve education through innovative technologies and for making a positive impact on student achievement.
Improving consistency, transparency, and compliance
District leaders say PowerSchool Unified Talent™ Perform provides better consistency and transparency, helps them comply with strict evaluation requirements, and delivers comprehensive feedback to teachers—increasing educator effectiveness for better student outcomes.
“We expect students to embrace the digital transformation—every classroom is a fully integrated digital environment—and we expect teachers and leaders to take on the digital transformation, too,” says Dr. Michael Amadei, Principal at one of Des Plaines’ schools. “We’ve marginalized the use of paper, and teachers are now able—with the documents they’re uploading and sharing with us from the privacy of their own homes or other collaboration time—to get the feedback they want so they can grow as educators.”
Switching to digital makes the process easier
District 62 likes the improvements they’ve seen in their performance management process since implementing Perform.
“It’s made our administrators’ lives a lot easier,” says Dr. Paul Hertel, Associate Superintendent, Human Resources. “Our tracking system is working very well, and I’ve heard no negatives from principals or our teachers association. With an electronic system, teachers and principals have everything they need at their fingertips, so they can grow and reflect. And it keeps everybody honest.”
Amadei adds, “Teachers like that they have our notes from previous evaluations prior to filling out any kind of post-conference information. There isn’t a feeling of ‘gotcha’ or that we’re coming to the table with different information post-conference. It’s all upfront.”
Helping teachers grow with quality, consistent feedback
Easy access to past evaluations has also improved quality and consistency in evaluations.
“When we work with the teachers who are growing,” Amadei says, “there’s better consistency with the framework and the language that we’re using. What does an ‘excellent’ really mean? What does a ‘proficient’ really mean? Now that the structure is consistent across the district, we can focus more on communicating the quality of what we’re seeing to teachers. That gives us higher quality evaluations, which can lead to big gains in teacher growth.”
Another principal from within the district, Dr. Bradley Stein, Ph.D., agrees.
“When teachers reflect on their work more because of this process,” Stein says, “and when they feel like they can share more, it gives us as evaluators an opportunity to see some of the things we might not otherwise see.”
Stein says Perform transformed his work as an evaluator because it’s so easy to use. He also likes that the system auto-saves and allows for attachments, making it convenient and versatile.
In the end, Stein says embracing the digital transformation means teachers get the input they need to become more effective, which translates into higher student achievement.