Embedded Professional Development

PICCS helps teachers meet their achievement goals by building their capacity in the areas of differentiated instruction, curriculum development, customized assessments, teacher observations, and data-driven decision-making.

School Leader Evaluation
PICCS is currently reviewing school leader evaluation tools that measure a school leader's effectiveness in guiding instructional improvement. The Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-ED) offers a promising set of tools to help PICCS schools in the school leader assessment process. VAL-ED describes the unique approach to school leader evaluation: "The VAL-ED instrument consists of 72 items that comprise 6 core component subscales and 6 process subscales... In this 360 degree evidenced-based assessment of leadership behaviors, each respondent rates the principal's effectiveness on a six point scale after having first indicated the sources of evidence on which the effectiveness is rated... The VAL-ED can be used as part of a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of a leader's behaviors by providing a detailed 'picture' of perceived performance. When used appropriately, it yields valuable norm-referenced and criterion-reference scores for evaluating learning-centered leadership. It can be used annually or more frequently to measure performance growth, guide professional development, and facilitate a data-based performance evaluation."

To learn more about VAL-ED and to access their publications about school leader assessment models, visit the VAL-ED Website.

Teacher Evaluation
PICCS is utilizing the Danielson Group's Framework for Teaching as part of our teacher evaluation tools. The Danielson Group describes their unique approach to teacher evaluation: "An effective system of teacher evaluation accomplishes two things: it ensures quality teaching and it promotes professional learning. The quality of teaching is the single most important determinant of student learning; a school district’s system of teacher evaluation is the method by which it ensures that teaching is of high quality. Therefore, the system developed for teacher evaluation must have certain characteristics: it must be rigorous, valid, reliable, and defensible, and must be grounded in a research-based and accepted definition of good teaching. The Framework for Teaching provides such a foundation. In addition, however, the procedures used in teacher evaluation can be used to promote professional learning. When teachers engage in self-assessment, reflection on practice, and professional conversation, they become more thoughtful and analytic about their work, and are in a position to improve their teaching. Evaluators can contribute to teachers’ professional learning through the use of in-depth reflective questions. By shifting the focus of evaluation from “inspection” to “collaborative reflection” educators can ensure the maximum benefit from the evaluation activities."

Curriculum Development & Customized Assessments
Two of the main steps in the PICCS School Improvement Engine are; 1) customizing curriculum and instruction to meet the specific needs and learning styles of each student; 2) monitoring these customizations to make sure they are effective. PICCS is partnering with Performance Pathways to offer teachers a series of curriculum development tools that ensure that their curriculum design is aligned with State standards and integrated across grades and subject areas. Then, the data warehouse, created in partnership with TetraData, helps them process the results and figure out what is and is not working. This kind of interim assessment and modification is essential to help teachers prepare students to meet annual performance targets. In other words, the PICCS system helps teachers recognize where students are floundering in time to help them improve.