Pearson Offers On-Demand Professional Development with Teacher Compass™ PD
New Online Platform Serves as Springboard for Ongoing Training, Reflection and Collaboration
Philadelphia, PA — June 27 — School districts seeking solutions to meet new state and federal requirements for evaluating teachers and providing high-quality professional development can turn to: Teacher Compass PD, the latest addition to Pearson’s Teacher Compass Suite, a comprehensive teaching effectiveness system. Launched at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference in Philadelphia today, Teacher Compass PD is a web-based, on-demand professional development platform that engages teachers in ongoing training, reflection, and collaboration.
Combined with Teacher Compass Observe — Pearson’s teacher observation and evaluation platform —Teacher Compass PD creates individualized professional development plans for every teacher based on observation data. These professional growth plans are then connected to suggested professional development opportunities, including an easily-accessible online library of relevant training content and videos.
“New mandates for open, transparent, and fair teaching evaluation models created a need for Teacher Compass PD, a tool for administrators to assess teacher performance and augment professional development in a personalized, effective way,” said Stefan Kohler, who heads up Teaching Effectiveness at Pearson. “Our always-on, always-available platform ensures teachers have professional development when they need it to enhance their own skills and to accelerate student performance.”
Teacher Compass PD addresses the need for continuing, real-time professional development to augment traditional in-service events. Social networking features within the platform provide peer-to-peer support and ongoing reflection time, encouraging communication and collaboration between colleagues. In this way, professional development is reinforced all school year. A rich dashboard of reports on teacher professional development activity helps school administrators to meet accountability requirements.
Teacher Compass PD’s searchable online library of more than two thousand research-driven professional development videos and documents helps teachers better understand models for delivering current and relevant classroom strategies. The collection offers front-row access to educational experts and best practices, including exclusive content from:
- America’s Choice® — With a renowned history as a national thought leader and as the creator of research-based school improvement solutions that work for states, districts, and schools, America’s Choice content provides valuable in-class teaching guidance and modeling.
- Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model — Teachers gain practical implementation knowledge and skill around delivery of the SIOP Model, a proven and validated approach to effectively teaching content for English language learners (ELL).
- Research for Better Teaching — A nationally-recognized school improvement organization founded by Jon Spahier, Research for Better Teaching’s programs are available to develop teacher evaluation systems, train data coaches and data teams, develop leadership skills for strong school culture, and build in-house professional development capacity to ensure skillful teaching.
- Professional Growth Academy — A multitude of videos featuring teachers modeling effective strategies in the classroom on topics that all school districts face, including ELL instruction, teacher induction, and elementary and middle-level reading.
- A+RISE® — A series of useful, daily, just-in-time instructional strategies and videos to improve the academic and content achievement of ELLs.
- Pearson curricula — Best practices, strategies and tutorials for implementing Pearson’s Common Core-aligned instructional programs, including enVisionMATH, Reading Street, and digits. More professional development content tied to Pearson curriculum will be available in the coming months.
“By connecting individual professional development plans to district goals, Teacher Compass PD provides transparency in the evaluation system. Teachers and administrators can make data-based decisions, understand what training is most useful and effective, and build unique professional learning communities in real time,” Kohler added.
Pearson’s Teacher Compass Suite, comprised of Teacher Compass PD and Teacher Compass Observe, serves as a complete, customizable online teacher evaluation and coaching system that helps school officials and in-classrooms teachers work together to implement an equitable educator evaluation system.
More information is available at: http://pearsonpd.com/teachercompass.
About Pearson
Pearson has as its mission to work side-by-side with states, districts, teachers, students and parents to ensure that every child is prepared for college and career (NYSE: PSO).
Contact::
Kate Miller, kate(dot)miller(at)pearson(dot)com, 800-745-8489
