Find out how administrators at Wilson County Schools in Tennessee are able to provide differentiated professional development to 21 schools.

1. A School Improvement Network Product
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System Profile About PD 360
The Wilson County School System is located in Lebanon, PD 360 is the leading on-demand professional learning
Tennessee and serves approximately 15,000 students at resource for educators with over 600,000 subscribers.
21 sites. Teachers, administrators, professional learning commu-
nities, coaches, etc., have access to over 1,400 indexed
Wilson County strives to obtain the best teachers and and searchable video segments that present real, best-
administrators possible, knowing that this will directly practice classroom examples. Each segment includes
affect the success of their students. Of the 991 people content from respected educational experts such as
employed in positions that require state certification, Michael Fullan, Rick DuFour, Doug Reeves, Rick Stig-
approximately 48 percent, have attained an educational gins, and many others. PD 360 can be used to create a
degree at the masters level or higher. It has about 8 per- structured learning experience for an individual teacher,
cent who have achieved career ladder status of two or professional learning community, or entire school. It
three. The system has also lowered pupil-teacher ratios, bridges the gap between training and classroom imple-
increased the number of teaching assistants, increased mentation with job-embedded follow-up, tracking, and
the number of counselors, and has added school nurses reflection tools. PD 360 also gives educators access to
as a way of providing better service to the students. And an online community of teaching professionals that al-
Wilson County has been district accredited via the South- lows interaction and collaboration either within a district
ern Association of Colleges and Schools and AdvancED. or across the United States and around the world. See a
demonstration at www.pd360.com
System Needs
Wilson County Schools is thoroughly committed to its Driving Usage and Implementation
education professional development (PD) mission to “en- Wilson County decided to introduce PD 360 in midyear
hance teaching and learning and increase student success by first training the administrators and a few selected
through ongoing support and development of the faculty.” teachers. These teachers then went back to their groups
and trained the others. Here are some of the ways it
Why would such a commendable system have needed a
implements PD 360:
better continuing PD source? Because it was looking for
the best PD available, a quality, job-embedded product >>Classroom Walk-Throughs
with accessibility for both administrators and teachers. When principals do classroom walk-throughs, they email
specific PD 360 segment links to individual teachers
What Wilson County Schools found was PD 360
that are relevant to particular instructional needs.
www.schoolimprovement.com | www.PD360.com

2. >>Group Training >>Cost Effective
Teacher education is often personalized for groups PD 360 provides everything Wilson County needs at
such as when Wilson County high schools chose to considerably less money than traditional PD. Funding
customize their PD 360 instruction to the objectives of sources are available to districts and schools, includ-
differentiation and assessment. ing Title I, II, III, IV, V, VII, state funds, foundation funds,
federal and state grant monies, math funds, reading
>>Faculty Meetings funds, technology funds, etc.
Wilson County uses PD 360 in its faculty meetings by
watching a segment either before or during the gather- >>Customizable
ing, then breaking into groups and using the Facilitator Wilson County keeps educators focused on what mat-
Guide materials to lead discussions and activities. ters most by aligning PD 360 video learning segments,
forums, and resources with individual state, system,
>>Teachers Who Are Struggling and school teacher training objectives.
Teachers experiencing difficulties are helped when
principals or PD coordinators email specific segment >>Real Classroom Examples
links showing what best practices look like in needed A variety of real classrooms from across the country is
areas. The teachers’ viewing and reflecting can be shown in every PD 360 program so that teachers can
chronicled in their Professional Growth Plans. actually see how to implement best-practices in their
own classroom teaching.
>>Teacher Growth Plans
Teacher PD 360 usage is tracked in Professional “In addition to providing high quality presenters, PD
Growth Plans as a way to follow specialized goals and 360 also excels in sharing practical, real-life teaching
teacher development. examples in current classroom environments. Our teach-
ers have gained valuable insight in both theory and
practice thanks to PD 360.”
Benefits
Monty Wilson
Wilson County School System has experienced many Supervisor of Secondary Curriculum and Instruction
benefits while implementing PD 360 and looks forward Wilson County Schools, TN
to many more.
>>Research-Based Best Practices
>>Meets Individual Needs The best-practices shown in PD 360 are always re-
PD 360 gives individualized teacher training that en- search-based and classroom-proven, dealing with nearly
ables each teacher to immediately search for answers every education initiative of the past two decades.
to concerns while still providing a unified focus for the >>Tracking Features
whole system. Wilson County teachers follow their own growth curve by
>>Educator Enthusiasm using the tracking tools and reflection questions at the
“Many of our teachers are saying that this is the best end of each segment while administrators use PD 360’s
professional development they have ever experienced. integrated tracking, reporting, and follow-up to ensure that
In just six months, we have had great teacher buy-in teacher professional development happens consistently.
with 70% usage and with approximately 128,000 min- >>Recognized Education Experts
utes viewed. Our goal is to attain 100% usage within the Wilson County teachers have easy access to over 100 top
first month of the next school year.” education experts at their fingertips without waiting for
conferences or paying the high costs associated with them.
Monty Wilson
Supervisor of Secondary Curriculum and Instruction
Wilson County Schools, TN >>Focus Objectives
“The PD 360 Focus Objectives have allowed us to have
>>Accessibility system-wide focus with collective goals. These not only
Because PD 360 is an online and on-demand solution, give us a common language but also a common practice.”
Wilson County teachers can access it anytime and
anywhere they have the Internet. Teacher professional Monty Wilson
Supervisor of Secondary Curriculum and Instruction
development is now flexible to individual schedules Wilson County Schools, TN
rather than being limited to the school calendar.
>>Relevant Topics
Innovative content is continually being added to the
over 1,400 indexed and searchable video segments
giving Wilson County the most current and comprehen-
sive PD library available.
www.schoolimprovement.com | www.PD360.com

3. About School Improvement Network
Founded in 1991 by two school teachers, School
Improvement Network empowers educators with
comprehensive, research-based, professional learn-
ing tools that build teacher expertise to foster greater
achievement among their students. As the home of
The Video Journal of Education, PD 360, and The 360
Learning Framework, School Improvement Network
offers content from the largest group of educational
experts, the broadest range of topics, and the most
classroom examples anywhere. School Improvement
Network boasts the world’s largest educator-verified,
on-demand professional development network with
over 600,000 users. To learn more about School Im-
provement Network’s dynamic resources, visit
www.schoolimprovement.com
www.schoolimprovement.com | www.PD360.com