DIVISION NEEDS

Henrico recognizes that employees are the division’s most important resource and wants to enable its teachers to continually strive for excellence. Its Department of Staff Development is dedicated to exploring every possible avenue to assist individual faculty and staff in the effort to provide a better education for all students.
Henrico was looking for a professional development solution that would provide individual services. A program that is:
• site-based
• organizational
• ongoing
• on-demand
• online

SOLUTION

Henrico purchased PD 360, the School Improvement Network’s premier online and on-demand professional learning solution to provide the individualized service and to broaden the reach of its existing professional development program. 

ABOUT PD 360

PD 360 is the leading on-demand professional learning resource for educators with over 500,000 subscribers. Teachers, administrators, professional learning communities, coaches, etc., have access to over 1,000 indexed and searchable video segments that present real, best-practice classroom examples. Each segment includes content from respected educational experts 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 world. See a demonstration at www.pd360.com.

DRIVING USAGE AND IMPLEMENTATION

Henrico County Public Schools began immediately to integrate its plan to drive usage and implementation among its staff. This includes the following:

• The PD department encourages administrators to use content from PD 360 to support professional growth and evaluation conversations.
• Content folders have been created at the division level.

"These division level folders help direct administrators and teachers to specific segments that align with our professional qualities and the division initiatives outlined in our instructional framework (e.g. balanced assessment, cooperative learning, classroom management, quality questioning)."
Linda K. Thompson
Assistant Director of Staff Development
Henrico County Public Schools, VA

• Henrico has a staff development representative in each building who also serves as a PD 360 contact person to promote usage and answer questions.

“In the beginning of our implementation, we provided a two-hour initial training for our staff development representatives, administrators, and content specialists on usage strategies and the admin tools. Now school based individuals will help identify video segments and populate focus objective folders specific to whole faculty or study group needs.”
Linda Thompson
Assistant Director of Staff Development
Henrico County Public Schools, VA

• Re-licensure points are available to teachers for their PD 360 usage.
• Teachers are encouraged to make PD 360 a part of their own personal growth plans.  
• Professional Learning Communities have been endorsed by administrators and set in motion.
• Henrico Staff Development is able to customize PD 360 by uploading its own content.

“We populate the HCPS Content folder with specific content that we develop for in-house use. The ability to upload our own content provides the means to deliver content to multiple audiences and publicly feature PD 360. Reports show evidence of increased use of PD 360 following presentation of HCPS content through the PD 360 interface.”
Gaynell Lyman
Staff Development Instructor
Henrico County Public Schools, VA

• A Mentor Coordinator is positioned in every school so that all new teachers are uniformly trained in Henrico standards and goals using PD 360.
• The Henrico Staff Development Coordinator passes on the Strategy of the Week to planners and specialists.

“Strategy of the Week” is a free weekly resource offered by School Improvement Network that provides valuable professional development tips and information for educators.

BENEFITS

As a result of their well-planned implementation of PD 360, Henrico County Public Schools has experienced many significant benefits.

• PD 360 tracking and reporting tools show that usage by administrators and teachers has steadily climbed.

“We model the use of PD 360 by incorporating video segments into our division-wide leadership professional development sessions. Some administrators report returning to school and using the same segment and/or process to facilitate conversations.”
Gaynell Lyman
Staff Development Instructor
Henrico County Public Schools, VA

• A recent review of site-based staff development plans yielded the following:

•          25% of schools reported using PD 360 for whole-faculty instruction/reflection.
•         20% of schools reported using PD 360 for new learning in PLC, Study Group, or grade level meetings.
•         2 instances of combined faculty usage were reported.

• Teachers appreciate the flexibility of access anywhere and availability anytime: at home, school, or even on vacation.
• Individual educators are empowered to take responsibility for their own growth by having everything they need to improve their teaching in one place.
• Struggling teachers are motivated to make a personal plan to address their own needs by watching the more than 1,000 real best-practice classroom examples.
• Access to over 100 of the most respected experts is at every Henrico teacher’s fingertips.
• Henrico now has the most current and complete professional development library available and new content is continually being added.
• Administrators and teachers can instantly find the help they need by searching hundreds of fully indexed video learning segments that address the most up-to-date topics.    
• Henrico Schools are devising creative ways to use PD 360 content such as:

•         visual media to complement a Marzano book study 
•        instructional highlights at faculty meetings
•        new learning for a PLC focused on word study
•        using the voice of the expert delivering content during facilitated training

• Because teachers are experiencing more focused professional development, Henrico students are benefitting with improved test scores.

•        During one school year, English passing scores increased by 3%.
•       During the same school year, Math passing scores increased by 2%.

About School Improvement

Founded in 1991 by two school teachers, School Improvement Network empowers educators with comprehensive,
research-based, professional learning tools that build teacher expertise to foster greater achievement
among their students. As the home of The Video Journal of Education, PD 360, and The 360 Learning Framework,
School Improvement Network offers content from the largest group of educational experts, the broadest
range of topics, and the most classroom examples anywhere. School Improvement Network boasts the world’s
largest educator-verified, on-demand professional development network with over 500,000 users. To learn
more about School Improvement Network’s dynamic resources, visit www.schoolimprovement.com.