HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD HENRICO COUNTY ARTESIA Lamesa ISD

Large Louisiana District Cannot be Stopped by Nature or Budget Cuts

THE TERREBONNE PARISH SCHOOL DISTRICT, LOUISIANA

Case StudySchool Improvement Network

www.schoolimprovement.com | www.PD360.com | 800.572.1153

The Terrebonne Parish School District (TPSD) is a system in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, a strong community that val-ues education and prides itself on being self-reliant. TPSD is the tenth largest district in Louisiana with 41 schools and serving 18,911 students.

TPSD provides a learning environment which seeks to ensure that every student achieve high academic standards and become a confident, productive citizen. It strives to accomplish this through a coordinated teaching program guided by well-trained instructional and administrative leaders working together with students, parents, and the community.

TPSD recognizes that an effective professional develop-ment (PD) program is vital to the continual growth and improvement of educators. Professional personnel in the district are encouraged to keep up with new developments and opportunities in their academic fields and to promote current educational practices. However, when budgets were drastically cut because of the economy, inadequate funding made it difficult to provide comprehensive PD for all educators.

TPSD also has needs that are unique to its location. Sitting on the Gulf of Mexico means being vulnerable to tropical storms, hurricanes, floods, and the recent oil spill that can cause school closures, building damage, and economic up-heaval for schools and students. Each time a catastrophe hits Terrebonne Parish, the school district is overpowered financially and must allocate funds to areas other than professional development.

When looking to upgrade their school improvement plan and knowing it would need creativity with too little funding, TPSD identified the needs of its educators and looked for an affordable resource that would support district goals and provide individualized, job-embedded PD for all teachers.

Roslyn Dempster, Title I/Title II Coordinator at Terrebonne Parish School District, was already familiar with the high quality of School Improvement Network (SINET) products and when she was introduced to its online, on-demand professional development product, PD 360, she knew it was ideal for the system’s needs. Educators can instantly find the help they need on nearly every topic including differen-tiated instruction, classroom management, assessment, English language learners, leadership, and more. PD 360 bridges the gap between training and classroom imple-mentation with job-embedded follow-up, tracking, reflection tools, and unlimited usage.

Even with insufficient financial support, Ms. Dempster and Superintendent Philip Martin found the cost for so many benefits to be reasonable and significantly less than tradi-tional PD.

Regarding the natural disasters that affect the district physically and financially, Mrs. Carol Davis, Assistant Super-intendent feels that PD 360 has been a crucial aid to TPSD. She appreciates that PD 360 is a soft product so it cannot be destroyed by flooding. In addition, it makes experts and training available to educators regardless of missed days due to storms and school cancellations.

DISTRICT PROFILE

DISTRICT NEEDS

SOLUTION

www.schoolimprovement.com | www.PD360.com | 800.572.1153

“Even with all the storms and flooding, the profes-sional development is not lost but is there for us. This is another great benefit of an online product. And at a time when we haven’t funds to send educators to conferences, it provides all-inclusive professional development. PD 360 is a lifesaver.” Roslyn Dempster Title I/Title II Coordinator Terrebonne Parish School Board, LA

PD 360 is the leading on-demand professional learning resource for educators with over 700,000 subscribers. Teachers, administrators, professional learning communi-ties, coaches, etc., have access to over 1,400 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 around the world. See a demonstration at www.pd360.com.

At mid school year Terrebonne Parish School District launched PD 360, integrated usage into some areas, and encouraged teachers to browse and become familiar with it. In the next school year, Ms. Dempster has plans for the program to become more focused as additional implemen-tation is added.

TPSD began PD 360 implementation by training school principals. Principal buy-in is critical as teachers are found to do better when their administrators are engaged in and supportive of the PD program, putting all educators on the same page.

The district next trained its Master Teachers, teachers without classrooms who coach others. The Master Teach-ers were then able to go back to their schools and instruct teachers in using PD 360.

PD 360 supports existing Professional Learning Communi-ties in TPSD. The PLCs watch a video segment from PD 360 and discuss how to apply the practices in their classrooms. The accompanying digitized Facilitator Guides provide group activities, discussion questions, lesson plans, and graphic organizers. Many include handouts that can be printed on-demand.

PD 360 time viewed and responses to reflection ques-tions are tracked and applied as Continuing Learning Units toward teacher learning credits.

New teachers are immediately trained to use PD 360. When there is an issue in their classrooms, they can be directed to segments included in programs such as Classroom Management and Differentiated Instruction. PD 360 is also a great source for helping new teachers understand the district and school goals.

Coaches can help struggling teachers by suggesting specific PD 360 segments that show what best classroom practices look like in needed areas. Each teacher’s viewing as well as answers to Reflection and Follow-Up Questions can be fol-lowed by the administration to track teacher growth.

Getting principals into the classrooms has a large impact on teacher training. As principals do classroom walk-throughs, they can email specific PD 360 segment links that are rel-evant to the instructional needs of the teachers and provide easy and effective, job-embedded follow-up. Being able to quickly provide instant remediation on many issues has been beneficial to both principals and teachers alike.

Teacher education can be personalized for group training. The digitized Facilitator Guides in PD 360 provide assis-tance as district facilitators prepare training sessions. Video segments are shared with a group of teachers and PD 360’s automated reflection questions are assigned to help teachers implement new strategies. The trainer can read teachers’ answers and provide suggestions and feedback.

Terrebonne Parish schools show video segments in fac-ulty meetings to teach best classroom practices and start discussions, using ideas from the Facilitator Guides to lead

ABOUT PD 360

Principal Training

Master Teacher Training

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)

Teacher Learning Credits

New Teachers

Group Training

Faculty Meetings

DRIVING USAGE AND IMPLEMENTATION

Teachers Who Struggle

Walkthroughs

www.schoolimprovement.com | www.PD360.com | 800.572.1153

activities. Discussion and activities encourage teacher interaction, peer support, and enhance school communication.

Terrebonne Parish Focus Teachers are highly trained educators who teach math and English classes for at risk students. Because they are spread among schools throughout the district, it has been difficult to get them together for group meetings. Therefore, Ms. Andrea Rodrigue, Lead Focus Teacher, is using the PD 360 Learning Communities to allow teachers to communicate and collaborate with each other. Through it, teachers present each other with implementation ideas, participate in discussion forums, upload lesson plans, and share web links to helpful resources. Teachers and administrators can share best practices, learn from one another, and eliminate classroom isolation regardless of location. Learning Communities can be created as public or private domains.

The benefits of PD 360 to Terrebonne Parish School District are plentiful and it anticipates experiencing many more.

Superintendent Philip Martin is supportive of PD 360 and sees great promise for it in TPSD.

Teacher response has been excellent which generates enthusiasm in the classroom that in turn motivates students. They have been pleased by the quality of the content, the real classroom examples, and the ability to search for their own answers.

TPSD’s educators can immediately find the help they need in the 1400 fully indexed, video learning segments that address the most pertinent topics and have easy search ability. In addition, PD 360 is always adding more programs that are up-to-date and applicable.

As questions and situations arise in classrooms, each teacher can instantly find answers to improve teaching and give support when needed instead of waiting for district workshops. The wide variety of content in PD 360 ensures that teachers of every experience level can find individualized help.

Because PD 360 is an online and on-demand solution, teachers in the system can access it anytime and anywhere

they have the Internet. They can log on at home as well as at work, which encourages teachers to take charge of their learning on their own time schedule.

PD 360 programs are always research-based and classroom-proven, dealing with nearly every educational initiative of the past two decades. Each program shows real classrooms from around the country using the best teaching practices.

New, quality content is continually being added to the up-to-date PD 360 library providing a resource that helps teachers continue to grow professionally. PD 360 has programs dealing with nearly every educational initiative of the past two decades.

PD 360 has been very cost-effective for Terrebonne Parish. The expenditure is much less than traditional professional development and can be purchased with a variety of funding sources available to districts and schools, including Title I, II, III, IV, V, VII, state funds, foundation funds, federal and state grant monies, math funds, reading funds, technology funds, etc.

The district is planning to customize PD 360 to align with state, district, and school goals plus initiatives in the coming year. As teachers and administrators use these aligned segments, they can actually see what the standards and best classroom practices look like when implemented in real classrooms.

With PD 360, teachers are responsible for their own professional growth and administrators can ensure that it happens consistently with PD 360’s integrated tracking, reporting, and follow-up. This strengthens teacher commitment, which translates into positive changes in the classroom.

Over 120 respected education experts are available at each TPSD teacher’s fingertips whenever they need them. Ms. Dempster no longer has the frustration of not sending everyone to conferences because of the high costs associated with them. Now educators do not have to wait to attend workshops and conferences yet can learn from the best authorities.Accessibility

Interactive Learning Communities

Job Embedded

Educator Enthusiasm

Vast Library Content

BENEFITS

Research Based and Best Practices

Relevant Topics

Cost Effective

Customizable Content

Individual Accountability and Integrated Tracking

Real Experts

www.schoolimprovement.com | www.PD360.com | 800.572.1153

“PD 360 has made professional development more available and I like that our teachers can see the real experts – the people who actually developed the solutions and who can teach the best implementa-tion of them.” Roslyn Dempster Title I/Title II Coordinator Terrebonne Parish School Board, LA

Terrebonne Parish School District’s Instructional Staff is excited to continue to explore the many possibilities of PD 360 during the coming school year, increasing student learning across all grade levels.

School Improvement Network is the leading provider of teacher education and teacher training, specializing in on-demand, research-based professional development anytime, anywhere. As the home of The Video Journal of Education, PD 360, and the Leadership and Learning Framework, School Improvement Network’s education training resources focus on the most relevant topics, such as classroom management. The resources also feature top experts such as Michael Fullan and Douglas Reeves, and show how to put theory into practice. With its focus on long-term improvement, sustainability, and greater internal capacity, the School Improvement Network helps its clients close achievement gaps, meet high standards and increase student learning for both elementary education and secondary education. To learn more about School Improvement Network’s dynamic resources, visit www.schoolimprovement.com.

ABOUT SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT NETWORK

To read more case studies, scan this QR code with a smartphone or visit www.schoolimprovement.com/casestudies