Like most Americans, the citizens of Hawaii place a high priority on quality K-12 education. The Board of Education and Superintendent of the Department of Education advance this statewide commitment toward excellence by fostering student achievement, school improvement, and community involvement. Hawaii’s public schools  are guided by these ideals:  high expectations of students’ knowledge, ability and passion for learning and high expectations for the performance of teachers and staff at every school.

To further these ideals,  the Department of Education recently purchased the on-demand professional learning resource PD 360 for all its schools. The program had already achieved strong results by early adopters in the state, with an independent study showing that PD 360 significantly increased reading scores in those schools.

PD 360 works by providing hundreds of indexed and searchable video segments that present real, best-practice classroom examples for teachers and administrators.  The segments feature education authorities such as Michael Fullan, Rick DuFour, Doug Reeves, Rick Stiggins, and  others.  Topics include differentiation, assessment, English language learners, leadership, and more. In addition to its content library, the program provides integrated follow-up tools, reflection activities, tracking, collaboration and community discussion forums, file sharing, and social networking.

“The schools that have already infused PD 360 into their professional learning development have found success in getting closer to their achievement goals,” said Robert Campbell, Director of Federal Compliance and Project Management, Hawaii Department of Education. “I believe this success is because teachers love the flexibility and comprehensiveness of this resource and have integrated its use into their daily schedules.”

Hawaii plans to use PD 360 at the school level to align professional learning plans with the school’s academic goals and student achievement data to ensure teachers have the resources and training necessary to improve student achievement.