BloomBoard and Empirical Education Ignite Personalized Growth and Calibration for School Leaders in North Carolina
Palo Alto, CA (PRWEB) August 07, 2014 -- BloomBoard, Inc. is partnering with Empirical Education Inc. to provide calibration and training services for school administrators across the state of North Carolina. Currently, North Carolina is piloting the process with administrators. Onboarding is scheduled for this year; once fully deployed, it will be available to all 115 districts in the state, reaching more than 6,000 school leaders and 120,000 teachers in the process.
The companies have created an easy-to-use, integrated platform for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) to provide training and calibration for school administrators who will be evaluating teachers as part of the North Carolina Educator Evaluation System (NCEES).
The comprehensive online solution will aid North Carolina schools in strengthening their capacity to improve the quality and value of educator evaluations to foster improved teaching and overall school success. The platform will combine BloomBoard’s Professional Development Marketplace with Empirical’s state-of-the-art observer training and calibration tool, Observation Engine, and will promote continuous NCEES improvements. This process will provide administrators with additional resources for leadership improvement.
Dr. Lynne Johnson, NCDPI Director of Education Effectiveness, is excited about the potential for the initiative. “The BloomBoard-Empirical partnership is an innovative new approach that will help change the way our state personalizes the training, professional development, and calibration of our educators,” says Johnson. “We look forward to working with partners that continue to change the future of U.S. education.”
For BloomBoard CEO and co-founder Jason Lange, the feelings were mutual. “North Carolina is doing a lot of great work helping to improve the likelihood of success for its students,” says Lange. “Our ability to close the loop in terms of determining what professional development is actually working to help improve outcomes for kids has incredible potential here. The NCDPI has a strong foundation in place that will allow us to hit the ground running and continue to build on its success.”
Denis Newman, Empirical Education CEO, added, “We are excited to be supporting North Carolina’s strong model for teacher evaluation. Combining Observation Engine with BloomBoard’s platform allows school leaders to calibrate their evaluations with those of their peers and access resources that will improve their ability to guide teachers.”
About BloomBoard
Founded in 2010, California-based educational development company BloomBoard enables personalized professional development by allowing K-12 educators to set explicit goals and creating individualized recommendations for professional growth opportunities, resources, and services tailored to each educator’s unique needs. For more information, please visit http://www.bloomboard.com.
About Empirical Education Inc.
Empirical Education Inc. is a Silicon Valley-based research company that provides tools and services to help K-12 school systems make evidence-based decisions about the effectiveness of their programs, policies, and personnel. The company brings its expertise in research, data analysis, engineering, and project management to customers that include the U.S. Department of Education, educational publishers, foundations, leading research organizations, and state and local education agencies. For more information, visit http://www.empiricaleducation.com and http://www.observationengine.info. For further information about Empirical Education, email Denis Newman, CEO, at dn(at)empiricaleducation(dot)com.
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XuanThu Pham, BloomBoard, +1 6505675656, [email protected]
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