“[TORSH Talent] has been really helpful for me… [Even though] COVID means that our plans are changing, we’re still getting to coach and develop our teachers.”

Reilly Blackwelder serves as the Assistant Principal of Instruction at the Rundberg campus of IDEA Public Schools.  We sat down with her to discuss the ways in which adopting virtual video platform TORSH Talent has accelerated the professional development of new teachers and expanded the leadership capacity of instructional leaders, despite pandemic struggles with staff shortages and increasing administrative loads.

IDEA Rundberg is a K-12 campus of IDEA Public Schools located in Austin, Texas.  A network of tuition-free public charter schools, IDEA was founded on the radical belief in the unlimited potential of all students and has a long history of democratizing excellent education.  Rundberg is committed to a mission of “College for ALL children,” ensuring more students from low-income backgrounds, students who would be the first generation in their families to attend college, and students who come from groups historically underrepresented in higher education have access to realizing their dreams by first completing their college degree on the path to becoming the future leaders of tomorrow.  To achieve this mission, Rundberg sets high expectations for every student and is committed to being a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and anti-racist organization.

Reflective Video Tools Help Educators Improve, Especially New Teachers

“The outcome that we’re seeing is that… now that [teachers] are watching instead of just listening to us, [they] are able to start getting better, faster.”

Reilly Blackwelder, Assistant Principal of Instruction for IDEA Rundberg

Rundberg’s four instructional leaders work with their 50+ teachers.  Each coach manages a caseload of educators grouped by department but which also includes a couple teachers that cross boundary lines.  This is “for our own coaching and development…,” Blackwelder explains, so that coaches “become… better leader[s] by coaching all subjects.”

Talent provides an exceptional framework for collaborating, performing observations, and delivering evidence-based feedback.  The time-synced commenting feature allows mentors and mentees to mark a moment in a recorded video observation with a text or audio comment.  The natural meticulousness of this feature heightens focus by documenting precisely what happened and when, creating freedom for an educator to concentrate on what they can learn from that specific event or scenario.  Teachers have more “AHA!” moments, Blackwelder explained.

Check-in meetings with teachers are typically weekly or bi-weekly, depending on where an educator is at in their professional development.  Blackwelder said that their system focuses on teachers implementing assigned “action steps.”  When the educator successfully achieves an action step, a new one is given.  If a teacher needs more help, coaches will provide more real-time coaching and model-teaching until the educator has achieved the goal.

New teachers have particularly benefited from the use of video.  “I can speak specifically to one of my teachers, who is pretty new and wants to get better.  Having coached her last year without using any video, it took a long time for action steps– for her to become proficient at doing certain things,” Blackwelder shared. “And as soon as we got TORSH… [now her] action steps are being turned around so quickly.”

Rundberg’s teachers at all levels feel a greater sense of ownership over their development with the use of Talent.  Blackwelder has noticed that her teachers have become more thoughtful, reflective, and engaged in the whole process – and it’s showing results.

“The outcome that we’re seeing is that… now that [teachers] are watching instead of just listening to us, [they] are able to start getting better, faster.”  

Video Platform Expands Leadership Capacity During Pandemic Struggles

“Something that’s been really great with TORSH is that I can just go and set up my phone in somebody else’s classroom, leave it there, and let it record.  And then I can watch and observe at a different time and give them feedback.  So they’re still growing and developing, even if I’m not able to physically be in the room.”

Reilly Blackwelder, Assistant Principal of Instruction for IDEA Rundberg

Using TORSH Talent has expanded the leadership capacity of instructional leaders at Rundberg, allowing them to invest in the professional development of their teachers despite pandemic struggles.  

It’s no secret that the pandemic has exacerbated issues that education has been grappling with for years.  Educators and administrators are exhausted, overworked, and overwhelmed.  Pre-existing staff shortages have gotten worse.  Building a growth mindset in a school or district becomes difficult when administrators feel as if they are stuck in survival mode.

Blackwelder confirmed that staff at Rundberg have been facing these same stressors.  “This year has been incredibly challenging, for many reasons.  And one of the things that we’re finding very hard as admin is, every single day, we come in and we think, okay, am I subbing today?  Do we need people?  Because there’s been so many people that are out.”

Talent facilitates classroom observation through video, meaning that instructional leaders do not have to be physically present at the back of a classroom when their presence is required elsewhere.  Instead, educators record and upload videos of classroom teaching to the platform.

“Something that’s been really great with TORSH is that I can just go and set up my phone in somebody else’s classroom, leave it there, and let it record.  And then I can watch and observe at a different time and give them feedback.  So they’re still growing and developing, even if I’m not able to physically be in the room.”

These videos can be watched and re-watched by the teacher and their coach(es), administrator(s), and selected peers.  Self-reflection, collaboration, and feedback can be provided through a suite of tools, including time-synced video commenting, customized rubrics, and resources in an exemplar library.  Coaching and professional development is available at any time and from anywhere with the flexibility of using either the website or the mobile app.

From a leadership perspective, Blackwelder shared that “[TORSH Talent] has been really helpful for me… [Even though] COVID means that our plans are changing, we’re still getting to coach and develop our teachers” through observation and feedback cycles.

Let Us Help You, Too!

Reach out to our team to learn more about how TORSH can support your organization’s efforts in K-12 education!

In the meantime:

Read about how The Center for Transformative Teacher Training (CT3) leveraged TORSH in order to continue their coaching and professional development work amid the pandemic shift to virtual learning.  CT3 has been empowering schools to be bold, act in anti-racist ways, and eliminate some of the policies that led us to the current inequitable state of our educational system.

The post TORSH Talent Accelerates New Teacher Professional Development with IDEA Rundberg K-12 appeared first on Torsh.

CT3’s mission is to transform the quality and culture of education for youth, especially those in traditionally disenfranchised communities. The organization’s transformative and sustainable professional development centers around their innovative and research-validated “No-Nonsense Nurturer” approach to classroom management. Alongside this training, the organization offers real-time teacher and leadership coaching, virtual leadership coaching, and in-depth anti-racist school culture training aimed at building culturally relevant classrooms. With all of their work, CT3 builds capacity with their partners to implement anti-racist practices and to dismantle the systemic structures that have historically impeded self-confidence and academic outcomes among historically disenfranchised youth. (For more information about CT3, please visit https://www.ct3education.com)

Using TORSH Talent for Leadership Coaching Simply Made Sense

Pre-pandemic, CT3 had already found success using TORSH Talent for video support. Once pandemic restrictions and regulations forced schools to transition to the virtual space, CT3 discovered the usefulness of the platform for their real-time leadership coaching work. TORSH provided the organization and its coaches with “eyes on the ground when we couldn’t actually be on the ground. What TORSH has allowed us to do is to keep our people in their homes, and they are still able to give quality feedback and do important work without exhausting themselves flying three red eyes in five days,” Treadwell explained.

Principals and school leaders who were engaged in CT3’s leadership coaching were open to the shift in delivery because “it seemed like the right pivot, at the right time, for the right reasons.” The organization’s main challenge during this shift was to ensure that they were providing the same level of quality and rigor of work in the virtual space. CT3 prides itself on giving really actionable feedback and coaching plans, and our Talent platform allowed associates to continue to provide high-quality support to their partners.

Looking forward, CT3 plans to continue with a hybrid engagement style that combines in-person touchpoints with intentionally designed virtual sessions using the TORSH Talent platform.

A Necessary Emphasis on Anti-Racism and Equity

Although anti-racism was already playing a large role in CT3’s work, the organization re-committed itself to increased anti-racist engagement and education with all of its partners in June 2020. “During this time, we truly have to put equity at the center of our work. We really have to make sure that this time, we are focused on all scholars.”

CT3 has been empowering schools to be bold, act in anti-racist ways, and eliminate some of the policies that led us to the current inequitable state of our educational system. Pandemic difficulties have really highlighted that there are some structures built within schools that were meant to withstand challenging times like these, and some that were not.

In order to really tackle structural problems, schools must hold a mirror up to themselves and their own practices. As the primary thought partner for school leaders, CT3 spends a lot of time talking with principals about habits they have built together, habits they still need to build, and habits they need to break. “Our goal at CT3 is to continue to push our schools not to go back to ‘normal,’ because ‘normal’ didn’t serve all of our kids. ‘Normal’ serves some kids, and this became very clear very quickly, especially in terms of access to technology and use of that technology.”

CT3 hopes that COVID-era conversations surrounding this concern on a macro-scale will provide schools with the momentum to rethink and reimagine the conversation around learning loss, ultimately pushing forward sustainable and meaningful anti-racist solutions.

The post TORSH Talent Facilitates Business-as-Usual for CT3 Despite Pandemic Virtual Shift appeared first on Torsh.

TORSH is delighted to celebrate the fourth year of our partnership with Teach Plus, a service organization that provides professional development for teachers through various training and coaching programs. We sat down with Michael Savoy, their National Managing Director of Teacher Leadership Programs, to discuss the partnership and the ways in which TORSH Talent has allowed Teach Plus to continue with business-as-usual in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“We felt fortunate that we had this opportunity to just continue to do the work as we have been doing,” Savoy began.  “Our work is a little different than many other coaching organizations, in that we’re not coaching classroom practice.”  

Michael Savoy, National Managing Director of Teacher Leadership Programs for Teach Plus

The mission of Teach Plus is to empower excellent, experienced teachers to take leadership over key policy and practice issues that affect their students’ success. The organization empowers expert teachers to advance policy changes and improve instructional leadership and teacher supports; trains and coaches teacher leaders to successfully mobilize and lead teacher teams; and empowers teacher leaders to be change agents among their peers and policymakers.  Since 2009, Teach Plus has trained thousands of teacher leaders across the country who are driving policy changes and improving the instructional practices of teachers to create an education system driven by equity, access, and excellence for all students.  (For more information, please visit https://teachplus.org)

In Search of Solutions to Support Their Dispersed Network of Coaches & Teachers

Four years ago, Teach Plus was searching for a solution to a pressing issue: how to maintain the same level of support and quality of coaching to an increasingly dispersed network of coaches and teachers. 

“Most of us with Teach Plus started out in an in-person position somewhere… but as the organization grew and we were starting to work with teachers spread out in different places, we realized that it didn’t always make sense to hire a local full-time coach.  We wanted to figure out how we could coach our teacher leaders without having to have someone physically sitting there with them all the time,” Savoy described. 

“Where I live is nowhere near any of the work that I do… TORSH gives me that opportunity to affect change on a lot of teachers without having to be physically in those spaces.”  

Though Savoy is based out of Maryland, he and Teach Plus’s other remote coaches are able to utilize TORSH Talent to work effectively with teachers across the country.  This expansion of possibilities and increased accessibility was a driving motive behind the organization’s decision to partner with TORSH.  “Being able to do my work from my space, without having to physically be in DC, or LA, or Chicago – that was where we were headed.  Ultimately, we’re thinking that we could have a teacher leader in the middle of Kansas, and we would still be able to support them and their leadership role without having to spend the money to fly one, or two, or three people all over the place,” Savoy explained.  “TORSH Talent has made it much easier for us to continue to keep our coaches where they are, wherever it is that they are located, and still utilize their talents effectively for supporting our teacher leaders.”  

Supporting Coaches from Coast to Coast

Savoy stressed that this support is vital when it comes to improving the quality of education and educational outcomes. Today, the organization reaches coast to coast and has eleven regional state programs serving teachers in both rural and urban school districts, from high-population-density states like Massachusetts to low-population-density states like New Mexico.  The programs currently support 300 teacher leaders across the United States using TORSH Talent.  

Savoy emphasized just how convenient it is to have “all of the tools in one place” – including features such as video uploads with time-synced comments, coaching rubrics, feedback, observations, coaching logs, and goal setting.  “With TORSH, I have the evidence, I have the feedback – it’s all right there.  It’s time-stamped….You don’t have to sit there and try to remember what you said when you were in the middle of something. The platform allows us to really focus our coaching conversations and provide targeted feedback in a way that simply isn’t an option when relying on memory alone.”  Savoy underscored the ways in which TORSH Talent has been invaluable to Teach Plus.

Virtual Coaching Before it Was Cool

No massive COVID-related growing pains for Teach Plus.  Reflecting on the process of adjusting to the virtual platform four years prior, he emphasized the collaborative nature of their partnership with TORSH and the customizable features of Talent.  “Back then, TORSH Talent was still in the process of being built.  Anytime I needed anything, I could reach out to our customer success rep and say, hey, it would be really great if we could have this feature or that addition… and our contact would say, okay, well, let’s go talk to the developers, and then our request would be completed,” Savoy extolled. 

Looking to the future, Savoy hopes that “virtual coaching options for teachers will become more available.”  

We at TORSH are continually honored to partner with innovative organizations such as Teach Plus, working to empower teachers to improve our educational landscape. 

Interested in learning how to expand the reach of your professional development offerings?

The post The Pre-Pandemic Virtual Coaching Solution That Positioned Teach Plus For Success appeared first on Torsh.

The School at Home Website provides schedule samples for all grade levels between K through 12, subject-specific resources, virtual field trips, and grade-level reading suggestions. The site is free to access and the result of a collaboration between Inspire Family of Schools, the Pacific Coast Academy, Mission Vista Academy, and Cabrillo Point Academy.

For those in need of Special Education Resources during COVID-19, the site links to different SPED resources including content compiled by Dr. Amanda Johnson.

A few final words of advice to ALL that visit the School at Home Website is something that we can all get behind: Breathe. Slow Inhale. Slow Exhale. You’ve Got This.

Click Here to view other COVID-19 resources

The post Homeschool Community Shares Resources with Parents During COVID Crisis appeared first on Torsh.

The Johns Hopkins School of Education is now leading the way when it comes to providing families, educators, and administrators with educational resources through the launch of their COVID-19 Education Resources site.

The COVID-19 Education Resources site launched its commitment to providing updated resources to all involved in education during this pandemic with the following statement:

American education will be transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdown, and eventually, the recovery. As a leader in evidence-based educational policy and practice, the Johns Hopkins School of Education is on the front lines shaping how our profession responds to the challenges. This site is a trove of timely and relevant research, expertise, guidance, and resources to help families, teachers, and district leaders emerge from the crisis stronger than ever. Updated regularly. Please share.

Johns Hopkins School of Education (SOE) is no stranger to the Torsh family. In 2016, SOE was featured in a client spotlight article highlighting their early experience with TORSH Talent, ultimately leading to the expansion of the program’s use for a range of degree and certificate programs at the University. The university’s experience is also featured on our Higher Education solutions page.

Click Here to view other COVID-19 resources

The post Johns Hopkins Launches COVID-19 Education Resource Site for Families & Educators appeared first on Torsh.

Fortunately, there are schools such as Rocketship Spark Academy that are working to level the playing field. A free public charter elementary school in San Jose, CA, Spark delivers the highest quality education to underserved elementary students who would not otherwise have access to top-notch schools. They are both a Torsh client and a member of the Rocketship Education non-profit charter network. The team at Spark is working tirelessly to bridge the achievement gap, and we are proud to feature them in this week’s Client Spotlight. 

Rocketship Spark Academy was founded in 2013 and today has over 590 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. 76% of the student body is considered “socioeconomically disadvantaged.” These are the students who typically attend poorly-ranked public schools, and who see a corresponding failure to achieve based on standardized test scores and other metrics. Spark offers these kids and their parents an alternative to their local public school. The lucky “Rocketeers,” students who are chosen at random by lottery to attend Spark, are seeing incredible results: Spark’s students are ranked #1 in both math and ELA across all 15 schools in the Franklin-McKinley School District. 

What is the secret to Spark’s obvious success? Their model is built on three pillars: Excellent Teachers and Leaders, Personalized Learning, and Engaged Parents. The first pillar is where Torsh is making an impact through Torsh TALENT, our teacher professional development platform. TALENT serves as a valuable coaching tool for the staff at Spark, assisting them with teacher training and allowing teachers to constantly improve upon their teaching practice through regular coaching. Spark is also using TALENT to record teachers in the classroom to build an exemplar library, where examples of great teaching techniques can be reviewed and shared. These best practices can be disseminated throughout the organization to give teachers new and better ideas for how best to reach their students. 

Spark Academy and the other schools in the Rocketship Education network have a stated goal to “eliminate the achievement gap in our lifetime.” That’s an incredibly ambitious mission. To make it happen, they must recruit the very best teachers, and provide those educators with the best training and professional development tools available. We at Torsh feel very honored that they have partnered with us to achieve their aims. Together with schools like Spark, we’ll continue to foster high-quality learning environments for our country’s most underserved kids. 

The post Client Spotlight: Rocketship Spark Academy appeared first on Torsh.

BES has grown to drive the success of more than 27,000 students in over 100 schools across the nation. Consistently high-performing schools are selected to join The Network for support in strategizing and sharing valuable practices for sustained student achievement. The Network Leaders Meeting brings together school leaders from 21 schools in 17 cities that are part of the BES system. Courtney is excited to join, visit with old friends and connect with new leaders. A lot of the leaders are likely to be familiar with TALENT since nearly 1/3 of The Network schools are currently utilizing the platform. All in all, there are currently more than 750 BES teachers and leaders using TALENT but we expect that number to significantly grow this next year. Together with BES, we have built out new features to facilitate collaboration across The Network. 

The purpose of the project is to create a space where leaders can coach, communicate, and collaborate in the common pursuit of excellence. The schools within this network can have their own individual systems for their teacher professional development – but can also share exemplar videos across the entire BES network. They can create peer groups enabling 4th-grade teachers at Purpose Prep in Nashville to connect with Valor Academy teachers in California, further refining their practice through collaborative reflection and ongoing coaching.

Teaming up with the BES leaders to complete this framework has provided an invigorating experience for our team, and new opportunities for educator learning. The Torsh TALENT platform is chosen by educational institutions nationwide to supplement their professional development, and we are happy that it is also a tool of choice for one of the leaders in high-achieving, college-preparatory charter schools. We look forward to the continued growth of our relationship with Building Excellent Schools, and their continued progress in developing schools that are “truly excellent, founded by talented leaders and grounded from the start in proven strategies and design elements”.

For more information about BES and the amazing work they do, you can visit their website here.

The post Torsh CEO Is Back In Boston For BES Leaders Meeting appeared first on Torsh.

Back in 2011, Sand Hill School opened its doors thanks to a combination of vision and philanthropy. The vision was provided in part by Rosalie Whitlock, the Executive Director of the Children’s Health Council (CHC). CHC, a non-profit that specializes in ADHD, Learning Differences, Anxiety/Depression and Autism, has been serving kids and families in the greater San Francisco area for over 60 years. Ms. Whitlock, together with Cindy Lopez, who currently serves as Head of School, recognized the need within the community for a school like Sand Hill. Their idea required initial funding, which fortunately came from philanthropists, education advocates and long-time CHC supporters, John and Betsy Kriewall. 

The initial student body consisted of seven students. By 2013, the school was serving 47 students in K-5. Today, it serves about 70 students in grades 1-8. 

Many kids arrive at Sand Hill frustrated and disillusioned. Their learning differences, often combined with attention and social challenges and other conditions such as anxiety, are inhibiting their success in the classroom and squelching their excitement about school. Sand Hill offers these bright and highly capable kids a unique, specialized program, which es their individual needs in ways that traditional schools do not. Instructors are trained in best practices for educating kids with conditions such as dyslexia. A six to one student ratio and access to skilled occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists and psychologists also contribute to student success. 

The school has developed what they call the “Sand Hill Approach.” A research-based curriculum, focus on social and emotional skills and the development of executive function, access to technology, and an emphasis on family partnerships are all important facets. The goals of the program include instilling kids with self-confidence, reigniting a love of learning, and ultimately preparing each student to return to a traditional classroom, where they can not just survive, but truly thrive. 

And, the program is working. Last year,  85% of students at Sand Hill School met their personalized academic goals in mathematics problem-solving, while 90% of students met their goals in reading comprehension. 

We especially love Sand Hill’s unwavering belief in their students’ potential. As the school’s website puts it, “Sand Hill students are the future visionaries, entrepreneurs and creative thinkers of the next generation who will shape the future of the Silicon Valley and beyond.” Such an empowering message helps fuel student growth and achievement. Students at Sand Hill learn to expect great things from themselves. We are so proud to play a role in this vibrant and transformative school community, and we look forward to seeing how Sand Hill alumni will ultimately contribute to society at large. 

The post Client Spotlight: Sand Hill School appeared first on Torsh.

This is a timely topic because Louisiana, the state in which our office resides, will soon include students’ growth as a weighted measure of school performance, a breakthrough development in light of a longstanding debate in the education community. It’s been recommended to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education that academic progress account for up to 25% of a school’s performance score. However, continuing coverage of the proposal highlights the contention surrounding how much student growth should influence school performance.

A major concern of opponents to the proposal is that “overemphasizing” academic growth misleads parents and stakeholders about the quality of education provided by the institution. This concern calls attention to a fear that struggling students, and the schools that fail but advance their learning, will be misrepresented in performance data. 

However, that worry may be unfounded (and possibly unfair). The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a leading education policy think tank, has asserted that systemized “growth measures are truer indicators of school quality” which can “identify a considerable number of chronically underperforming schools.” At the same time, according to data analyses published by Urban Institute researchers, “Judging schools based on their average test scores will tend to penalize schools that serve large numbers of lower-income and racial minority students.” Furthermore, emphasizing growth will support higher achieving students as well, a group that has demonstrated “comparatively slower growth in reading during the school year” according to a study published by The Journal of Educational Research.

Starting in June of 2016, the Louisiana Department of Education met with educators and representatives from across the state to discuss the changes to school accountability systems afforded by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The resulting ESSA Listening Tour Report includes themes of aligning expectations, raising standards, and serving struggling students. Likewise, widespread support for strengthening the teaching profession through consistent classroom observation was mirrored by a focus on the continuous improvement of students of all abilities. Weighting student growth by 25% (or more!) of a school’s performance score is reinforced in the report by the idea that, “Schools should be motivated to focus on the improvement of all students to achieve at their full potential.”

Growth as a performance measure acknowledges that school educators are serving students in consideration of a critical factor: their needs. Rather than misleading parents, growth indicators show that students’ progress and achievement is focal; and that on the path of education, each step forward is as important as where your journey began, and where your journey ends.

What are your thoughts on proficiency and growth? We would love to hear from you. Leave a comment below.

The post Proficiency Versus Growth: Measuring School Success in Torsh’s Home State appeared first on Torsh.

So what makes Uplift Education special? While their size alone is impressive, what really excites us here at Torsh are the incredible results they are delivering for their students, 75% of whom qualify for free lunch.

At Uplift, conversations about college begin in kindergarten (Yes, kindergarten!). Students are taught what it means to go to college, and each classroom has a college theme (often borrowed from the alma mater of the teacher). It’s not unusual to hear teachers and “scholars,” as the students are called, singing university fight songs throughout their school. Uplift shines a spotlight on the world of endless possibilities that can be unlocked with a college degree. As students progress onto middle school and then high school, they enter the “Road to College” program that includes campus visits and curriculum focused on college preparation.

Sending the message that college is not some distant dream but rather, a highly-attainable reality is having an impact on the hearts and minds of Uplift’s students. Take for example the graduating class of 2016, which included 464 students across six high schools. 94% of those graduates attended college last fall. Of those, 75% of those were first generation college attendees. Collectively they earned $54 million in college scholarships and grants. Last year also marked the eighth consecutive year that 100% of Uplift’s graduating class was accepted into college. Those are numbers that would make any school proud.

Torsh’s relationship with Uplift began three years ago with two schools, Uplift Mighty and Uplift Peak. These schools, which are Kindergarten through 11th grade and 12th grade respectively, began engaging with TALENT as part of teacher training, to include video observation and peer reflection. Now, every Uplift school leader has the ability to access TALENT – and we hope that as our relationship grows, TALENT will be accessible to every Uplift teacher on every campus.

Uplift Education demonstrates what charter schools can achieve when they set high standards and have a culture of accountability and uncompromising excellence. Teachers and administrators at Uplift Education expect great things from their students. And in turn, students learn to expect great things from themselves.

The post Client Spotlight: Uplift Education appeared first on Torsh.