Talent Management for Education
Posted by Elizabeth Counts on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 @ 12:35 PM
In many parts of America, high school students who aren’t college bound have limited options. In Pennsylvania’s Reading and Muhlenberg School Districts, students enjoy broader educational horizons. Through work-based learning opportunities in 31 programs, the Reading Muhlenberg Career & Technology Center (RMCTC) prepares students for careers or for post-secondary education.
RMCTC teachers follow educational best practices to help students compete in the workplace. Using PerformancePAM Talent Management software, school administrators initiated a unique process to help teachers achieve this goal.
Promoting Best Practices
Among their tenured teachers, RMCTC stresses professional development versus performance evaluation. “In my opinion, the clinical supervision method to improve pedagogy is not effective. When an administrator observes a class, teachers tend to present their best lesson and students are on their best behavior. As a result, it’s an artificial environment,” says Administrative Director Gerald Witmer.
To counteract this, RMCTC administrators invite tenured teachers to participate in a voluntary professional development process. (Last year, 100% of eligible teachers participated.) The first day of school, each teacher receives a signed satisfactory evaluation form based on their previous year’s performance. Unless they commit a serious infraction, they retain a satisfactory rating. Gerald explains the reasoning for this approach. “To improve performance, teachers must let their guard down and admit when they’re struggling with a particular aspect of teaching. They won’t mention weaknesses on an evaluation form because these invariably show up as a negative.”
To overcome this obstacle, RMCTC asked PerformancePAM to customize a professional development module. “Instead of an evaluation rubric, we designed a rubric to facilitate professional development. PerformancePAM allowed us to identify growth needs of individual teachers and to identify which teachers use best practices,” Gerald explains, adding, “This allowed us to provide the resources, workshops and peer support necessary for improvement. I can, for example, pair a teacher who is gifted in classroom management with one who’s struggling. They can then work together to improve the situation.”
A Teacher Tailored Process
The ability to customize PerforamancePAM made it attractive to Gerald Witmer.
“To review teaching methods, we created a software rubric defining areas of responsibility, such as curriculum and classroom management. We also identified necessary skills and had three rating levels: 1) needs development; 2) meets expectations; or 3) exceeds expectations. Next, we identified elements teachers could review to see where they place within the three levels.”
Working on a computer, teachers rate themselves in 45 areas within the rubric. When they’re finished, their supervisors complete the same process. Neither party can see each other’s responses. When both are done, a report is generated which demonstrates any differences of opinion. The supervisor and teacher discuss inconsistencies and an agreement is reached. Finally, PerformancePAM generates a report on individual teachers and the entire faculty to help RMCTC create a professional development plan for the school year. “This allows us to target individual and group needs and make good use of our limited professional development resources,” Gerald says.
Discovering a Software Solution
Gerald Witmer found PerformancePAM in a roundabout way. “I had a vision for what our software had to accomplish, but didn’t think a packaged product could align with our needs. I asked a software developer if he knew any programmers who could write a program like the one I envisioned. While attending a national industry conference, the programmer connected with PerformancePAM creators Pamela and Scott Perryman and reached the conclusion that PerformancePAM was 90% turnkey for our purposes.”
PerformancePAM was customized beyond its existing capabilities to meet RMCTC’s objectives. Set up of the rubric, users and permission access were done remotely. “It’s cool—I can give control of my screen to a member of the PerformancePAM technical support team who easily shows me what I need to do. They’ve been good to work with and have quickly resolved any issues we had,” Gerald comments.
PerformancePAM is entering its second year of use at RMCTC, and user feedback remains positive. “Our teachers love it. I’ve seen teachers encouraging their colleagues, saying, ‘You want to be part of this.’ They appreciate having ownership in the process. It’s a meaningful tool that meets their needs. It helps them admit weaknesses without feeling threatened and allows administrators to provide the necessary professional development.”
Indirectly, Gerald Witmer is seeing improvement in students, too. Academic scores, trade and technical assessments and attendance are increasing. “All of our goal indicators are improving, so I think that means teachers are doing a better job engaging kids. The software process has to have played a role in that.”