Breaking Down Barriers in Early Intervention

Early Intervention Providers (EIPs) are at the forefront of helping children with autism and their families navigate social-emotional development. However, their work often comes with logistical and technological challenges that can impede progress. Many EIPs work in home settings where reliable Wi-Fi isn’t always available, and they need secure, easy-to-use tools for data collection, reflection, and coaching. This is where TORSH has made a transformative impact.

Bridging the Technology Gap

The Building Interactive Social Communication Project (BISC), an innovative early intervention program through Indiana University, turned to TORSH to address key field challenges. EIPs needed a way to record video reflections and review them in real-time without storing data on their devices—a requirement to maintain HIPAA and FERPA compliance. With TORSH, they can:

• Capture video in the field without needing an internet connection.
• Securely store and manage intervention data, ensuring privacy and accessibility for the right team members.
• Engage in structured video reflection, allowing providers to assess and adjust their approaches for better outcomes.
• Collaborate seamlessly, connecting field providers, mentors, and researchers to improve intervention fidelity and effectiveness.

The TORSH Talent platform shows recent video uploads

The Impact: Measurable Improvements for Providers, Parents, and Children

Since integrating TORSH, BISC has reported significant improvements across multiple areas:

• Provider Success: EIPs have quickly adopted the system with minimal training time, allowing them to focus more on their work with families.
• Parent Empowerment: TORSH enables parents to actively participate in their child’s development, fostering a stronger parent-child bond and increasing self-efficacy.
• Child Development: Children demonstrate increased motivation to engage socially and take a more active role in their learning journey.

What Makes BISC’s Approach Unique?

Two key aspects set BISC apart from other early intervention models:

1. A Unique Developmental Sequence – BISC provides a structured approach that EIPs can easily implement. Providers see early progress, reinforcing their confidence and effectiveness.
2. Mediated Learning – The program focuses on fostering an internal desire in children to engage socially and learn, rather than relying solely on external motivation.

Seamless Implementation with TORSH

A major concern for the BISC team was the potential learning curve in adopting a new technology. However, the transition to TORSH was remarkably smooth. Providers quickly adapted to the platform, eliminating the need for additional expensive hardware like iPads. One of the program leaders shared their initial skepticism:

“I was expecting it to take a lot of startup time and a learning gap with providers, and it didn’t. Your team did so well with the implementation. In the back of my mind, I kept thinking, what if this doesn’t work, and we have to buy iPads again (and never get them back)? But thank goodness, everything is smooth.”

The Future of Early Intervention with TORSH

As BISC continues its work, the team seeks to expand research efforts and scale implementation with TORSH. By leveraging data-driven insights and enhancing collaboration between intervention providers, mentors, and researchers, BISC aims to refine and improve intervention strategies that make a lasting impact on children and families.

TORSH is more than just a coaching tool—it’s a solution that empowers early intervention teams to work more effectively, drive measurable change, and ultimately help children learn how to learn.

For more information about BISC and how to participate in their upcoming Early Intervention research, click here. 

To learn more about TORSH and see a demo of the Talent platform, click here.

The post How TORSH is Empowering Early Intervention Providers in the Field appeared first on Torsh.

KIPP DC Public Schools, the second-largest preK–12 district in Washington, DC, is dedicated to providing students with access to high-quality, culturally affirming education. Central to this mission is their commitment to hiring exceptional talent—whether or not they are certified teachers—and helping them grow into top educators. Read on to see how KIPP DC used TORSH Talent to help streamline teacher recruitment and development.

KIPP DC streamlines teacher recruitment and professional development with TORSH Talent

Transforming Teacher Recruitment with TORSH Talent

After the COVID-19 pandemic, KIPP DC aimed to transition back to in-person interviews. However, scheduling in-person demo lessons for time-strapped principals and district leaders posed a challenge. Rather than requiring candidates to present their demo lessons multiple times, the hiring team sought out technology to streamline the evaluation process.

Shanelle Trenard, Associate Director of Instructional Hiring at KIPP DC, initially considered having candidates film lessons on their phones and upload them to Google Drive. However, concerns about data security prompted the team to explore a more secure solution. That’s when they turned to TORSH Talent, an innovative coaching and professional learning platform.

Secure and Convenient Demo Lesson Review with TORSH Talent

One of TORSH Talent’s standout features is its secure video upload functionality, enabling seamless collaboration across the district.

TORSH Talent’s flexible platform allows for various modes of teacher development

• Reimagined Demo Lessons: Candidates present their demo lessons in person on a KIPP DC campus, and the hiring team records and uploads the lessons to TORSH Talent. School leaders across the district can log in at their convenience to review and assess multiple candidates.
• Data-Driven Hiring Decisions: KIPP DC’s hiring team plans to implement competency-based rubrics and data-driven assessments in TORSH Talent, ensuring a thorough and consistent evaluation process.

“This year we focused more on quality over quantity, and TORSH Talent has definitely helped us do that.”

— Shanelle Trenard, Associate Director of Instructional Hiring, KIPP DC

Nurturing Exceptional Teachers through the Capital Teaching Residency

As one of Washington, DC’s highest-performing school districts, KIPP DC prioritizes teacher quality. When hiring, the focus is less on prior teaching experience and more on whether candidates are mission-aligned and committed to continuous growth.

For individuals without teaching credentials—such as recent graduates or career changers—KIPP DC offers a pathway to state licensure through the Capital Teaching Residency. This program welcomes candidates from all backgrounds and provides intensive, hands-on training, including mentorship and coaching.

TORSH Talent: Supporting Teacher Development in the Residency Program

KIPP DC leverages TORSH Talent to deliver personalized, job-embedded coaching to Capital Teaching Residents. The platform supports both synchronous and asynchronous learning, ensuring residents receive ongoing, tailored feedback to help them grow as educators.

• Pathway to Licensure: As an accredited Educator Preparation Program (EPP), residents engage in meaningful coursework that aligns with the daily work of high-performing teachers. Torsh seamlessly integrates with our learning management system, enabling resident faculty to grade teaching videos and provide actionable feedback on residents’ practice.
• Feedback for Growth: Residents utilize the goals feature to set performance objectives aligned with the built-in rubrics. With support from the residency team, Capital Teaching Residents work towards mastery with clear action steps and models provided in the exemplar showcase.

With over 100 Capital Teaching Residents becoming KIPP DC Teachers of the Year, and 70% of alumni remaining in teaching or leadership roles after four years, the program is a proven success.

Professional development and teacher coaching can take place in virtual or hybrid settings with TORTH Talent

TORSH Talent: Empowering KIPP DC’s Mission for Educational Equity

Thanks to TORSH Talent, KIPP DC has not only streamlined its recruitment process but has also fostered a culture of continuous improvement and educational excellence. By investing in both quality hiring and ongoing professional development, KIPP DC continues its mission to ensure every student has access to top-tier educators dedicated to transforming lives through education.

To find out more about how you can use TORSH Talent to streamline your teacher development, book a demo today. 

The post Enhancing Teacher Recruitment and Development at KIPP DC with TORSH Talent appeared first on Torsh.

In early childhood education, effective coaching and support for educators is paramount to fostering optimal learning environments for young learners. The Early Learning Coalition of Polk County (ELC) takes this truth to heart in its work to give the next generation the skills they need to thrive in the future.

The central Florida non-profit agency runs programs focused on enhancing early education and care, including coaching and professional development for early learning educators across the county.

As a prominent advocate for equitable access to high-quality early childhood education, the ELC recognized the need to enhance its coaching processes to uplift teacher effectiveness and drive positive outcomes for the thousands of young children and families it serves.

But the ELC faces two major challenges: geography and coaching efficiency. Nestled between two major metropolitan areas, Polk County spans over 2,000 square miles. The ELC supports a large portfolio of nearly 1,500 educators across this area — with a modest team of just twelve instructional support specialists.

As a result of these challenges, coaches often have to use precious time and resources for long travels between sites, limiting their capacity to provide deeper coaching supports across early learning classrooms.

With a broad region to cover and an ambitious mission to fulfill, the ELC has partnered with TORSH to implement TORSH Talent, a leading online platform designed to revolutionize professional learning and coaching experiences for early education providers. Through this partnership, the ELC has committed to ensuring that teachers in priority classrooms across Polk County with higher support needs receive higher doses of effective coaching that directly improve their instructional practices and benefit students.

Though the implementation of TORSH Talent is in its earliest stages, the ELC is already witnessing positive gains among its coaching staff and the teachers they serve.

The Opportunity

The innovative TORSH Talent platform facilitates anytime, anywhere coaching, training, and collaboration to support early childhood educators with using evidence-based practices in their work with children and families.

TORSH Talent’s video feature serves as a cornerstone for enhancing coaching efficiency within the ELC. By enabling teachers to record and share instructional videos remotely with coaches, TORSH Talent breaks down the geographical barriers that previously limited ELC coaches’ capacity. This essential feature allows the lean team of coaches to provide timely feedback and high-quality support to educators across a broad range of locations.

TORSH Talent also supports coaches and teachers to connect from any place, at any time using its conferencing tools. This feature further expands coaches’ capacity, maximizing the time they spend with their teachers — virtually or in-person — to develop and grow instructional practices using evidence-based methods.

With TORSH Talent, coaches transcend traditional constraints and extend their support to a broader network of educators. Such scalability can not only optimize the utilization of ELC resources but can also foster a collaborative learning environment where best practices can be shared seamlessly across the county, enhancing the overall impact of coaching efforts and resulting in improved teacher effectiveness and student outcomes.

Meeting Early Learning Educators Where They Are

With support from TORSH, the ELC recently established a multi-stage approach to implement the TORSH Talent platform and bring its vision for efficient, high-quality coaching and professional development to life.

The first phase began with planning among the administrative team, identifying critical features to adopt at each stage, and configuring the platform to support the ELC’s specific coaching processes and needs. These efforts included establishing ways to gather custom data points to inform the measurable growth of teachers, goals and goal completion, resources and supports provided to achieve goals, coaching hours spent with teachers, and documentation around coaching sessions with teachers.

Next came the first rounds of training. TORSH supported multiple training opportunities for ELC coaches and their portfolio of teachers in high-priority classrooms to learn about essential features and build their comfort with the platform.

Early Gains, Positive Responses

Even in these early stages, with the ELC focused on working with a select number of coaches and practitioners, the team has already seen improvements in coaching effectiveness and educator engagement. Feedback from coaches and administrators about TORSH Talent is positive, with users praising the platform’s ease of use, its effectiveness in facilitating coaching conversations through the video feature, and its ability to streamline the coaching process.

More specifically, the ELC has experienced the following improvements:

• Enhanced connectivity between coaches and early learning educators, leading to more personalized support and targeted feedback.
• Improved visibility for the ELC into coaching activities and progress tracking, setting the stage for data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
• Greater alignment between coaching efforts and ELC organizational goals, laying the foundation for improved school readiness and child outcomes.

ELC leadership is delighted by these early gains over past challenges of geography and efficiency, especially during these beginning stages of implementation. They are seeing that coaches can now provide feedback remotely through video recordings, eliminating the need for constant physical presence to support teachers. The ELC hopes that this shift will not only save coaches time but also expand their reach moving forward by allowing coaches to support more teachers effectively.

An Exceptional Partner For Exceptional Outcomes

The ELC is also impressed with the quality services that TORSH provided throughout the initial implementation processes. In particular, the ELC appreciated the TORSH team’s attentiveness, hands-on guidance, and intentionality in onboarding teachers and coaches during the first phases of implementation.

In partnership with the ELC, the TORSH team also coordinated all training sessions around students’ naptime, ensuring teachers could access and onboard to the platform without adding extra time after hours to their workload. Multiple monthly touchpoints between TORSH and the ELC team has helped with monitoring user engagement, identifying opportunities to increase platform use, creating user guides about specific ELC protocols within the platform, and much more.

The Journey Ahead: Building On A Strong Foundation

With the next program year starting in early July, the next phase of implementation will focus on final training for coaches, with the ELC planning to leverage coaches’ input to guide the next stages of deepening users’ engagement on TORSH Talent.

In particular, ELC administrators are eager to build out the Exemplar library in the platform by structuring resources using CLASS frameworks, ensuring easy accessibility for users. Over time, the ELC will localize exemplars, incorporating videos of model instructional methods sourced from none other than the very educators that coaches support.

Another core focus will be data analysis and tracking outcomes. By seamlessly integrating with the WebAuthor^® platform, TORSH Talent will support the ELC to:

• Track coaching supports and evidence-based practices provided to educators through custom data collected on the platform
• Examine patterns in instructional gains and student outcomes across the high-priority classrooms supported
• Identify additional teachers who may benefit from ELC coaching supports
• Continue improving coaching efficacy and impact across Polk County

The partnership between the ELC and TORSH exemplifies a commitment to excellence in early childhood education. Though the implementation of TORSH Talent is still in its early stages, the ELC anticipates additional positive feedback from their coaches and the teachers they serve, and they eagerly look forward to seeing further positive outcomes.

By leveraging TORSH Talent’s innovative features and capabilities, the ELC is transforming its coaching processes, fostering a collaborative learning environment for coaches and educators, and ultimately driving greater impact for the children and families they serve.

The post The Early Learning Coalition of Polk County Expands Virtual Coaching Capacity with TORSH Talent appeared first on Torsh.

First Connections is a Little Rock-based agency within the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE), Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), Office of Special Education (OSE) that provides early intervention support and services to parents and other caregivers of program-eligible children from birth to three years old. First Connections also provides technical assistance to early intervention professionals to meet program certification requirements, offers ongoing professional development, and supports providers in applying evidence-based practices in their work with families.

First Connections employs only two full-time technical assistance and training professionals to support a diverse group of early intervention professionals spread across the state. With such a small team and such a big mission, First Connections needed a better way to provide certification training, ongoing professional development, and technical assistance beyond in-person training workshops. The program also needed more effective ways to track completion and collect data on the effectiveness of their technical assistance and training. Last, early interventionists working toward certification needed more flexibility in when and how they accessed training while they managed full caseloads.

These challenges led First Connections to search for a comprehensive online platform to help them manage and deliver technical assistance. In particular, First Connections wanted a solution to enable early intervention professionals to navigate certification requirements at their own pace. They also wanted an intuitive, simple-to-navigate platform to accommodate different technological abilities.

The goal: Ensure that all early intervention professionals, regardless of their location or schedule, have equitable access to essential resources and support opportunities.

The Solution 

First Connections was excited to discover TORSH Talent, a HIPAA-secure online platform that streamlines technical assistance and certification processes for staff in early intervention programs. With TORSH’s extensive expertise in supporting early intervention and care programs, First Connections found an ally to help them meet their goals and overcome obstacles.

Using TORSH Talent’s advanced suite of tools, First Connections has successfully launched a robust, accessible online environment for practitioners to tap into technical assistance services that support their practices. First Connections immediately began using TORSH Talent to:

• Offer on-demand, asynchronous courses
• Track completion of certification requirements
• Offer a variety of on-demand technical assistance modules to support in-service development of
  practitioner’s knowledge, abilities, and skills
• Offer Learning Paths tailored to the core competencies needed for specific roles

Core Competencies For Early Interventionists:

• Teaching families their IDEA rights in the context of the Part C Program process;
• Completing the Child Outcomes Summary (COS) rating as a team with the family using the state-approved tool
• Determining Part C Program Eligibility as a team with the family
• Developing a family-centered Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) around typical routines, child and family interests, and family priorities and concerns
• Selecting the Part C service necessary to reach the goals and objectives on the IFSP

Core Competencies For Therapists:

• Evaluation practices and sharing results of evaluations in the evaluation report within Part C Program guidelines and timelines
• Providing IFSP services within typical child and family activities to meet Natural Environment requirements
• Documenting Home and Community Visits (service sessions) in ways that describe the parent or caregiver participation

With its expanded reporting on practitioner engagement with content, TORSH Talent also enables First Connections to assess the effectiveness of their courses and course content in ways that the program was unable to do previously with in-person workshops or even in live webinars.

“The TORSH system provides an online platform to coordinate a variety of technical assistance activities and offer content and ongoing certification training courses to meet the needs of home visitors around their schedules.”

Tracy Turner
Part C Coordinator
The Arkansas Department of Education, Division of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Special Education

Initial Successes

With the comprehensive technical assistance and certification platform now fully operational within TORSH Talent, early intervention professionals are successfully engaging in coursework that historically had limited offerings. The result is that the statewide network of early intervention professionals are obtaining certification credentials in a timely manner with minimal support. And so far, feedback from in-the-field professionals about the experience has been positive.

First Connections is seeing significant improvements to both engagement and satisfaction levels among early intervention professionals, who appreciate the flexibility offered by TORSH Talent to access technical assistance on their schedules and supportive content specific to their needs. The collaboration between First Connections and TORSH has also yielded improved data collection, collaboration, and communication among stakeholders through the use of reporting tools.

As their partnership with TORSH progresses, First Connections anticipates a notable improvement in the effectiveness of their technical assistance offerings. Ultimately, bettering this support will also strengthen the practices that early intervention professionals leverage to serve families and children across the state.

What’s Next

The next step for First Connections is to work with TORSH to develop internal reports that group leaders can use to track their Provider Program staff’s completion of certification and annual professional development hours to further engage users. Additionally, First Connections plans to leverage TORSH Talent’s data collection capabilities to enhance the fidelity of technical assistance implementation and ongoing quality improvement. The program anticipates additional growth for practitioners and transformational practice improvements across the state through this collaboration.

The post Arkansas Department of Health Expands its Offering of Early Intervention Technical Assistance with TORSH’s Innovative Platform appeared first on Torsh.

The Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) improves outcomes for children and families by strengthening early learning experiences in partnership with home and center-based childcare providers, families, and communities. DECAL supports thousands of early education professionals across Georgia. Each DECAL program has its own unique needs as it relates to delivering quality professional learning for its educators. State leaders were looking for ways to expand access to high-quality professional learning opportunities across Georgia.

TORSH Talent Supports With Early Educator Professional Learning in Georgia

The Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) recognizes the importance of supporting the professional growth of their early care workforce in order to strengthen early learning experiences and improve outcomes for children and families. DECAL is using TORSH Talent, an innovative online platform, to facilitate collaboration, learning, mentoring, coaching, and professional development for providers.

The FERPA-compliant and HIPAA-secure TORSH Talent platform includes customizable tools for:

• Synchronous online coaching using built-in video conferencing
• Asynchronous coaching using recorded video and time-stamped feedback
• Self-guided online courses
• On-demand support from exemplar videos and other resources in the easily searchable resource library
• Goal setting and tracking
• Observation using standardized rubrics and frameworks
• Tracking and management of coaching interactions

“TORSH Talent provided us with a comprehensive, easy-to-use, configurable platform that allows us to serve the unique professional learning and coaching needs of our thousands of early childhood educators.”

~ CHRISTI MOORE, PH.D.

Director of Professional Learning, Georgia Dept. of Early Care and Learning

TORSH Talent in Action Through DECAL

TORSH’s team of early childhood care, intervention, and education specialists have collaborated with DECAL team leaders to customize TORSH Talent to support their specific goals and needs.

Spotlight on the Quality Rated Team

The Quality Rated team has built a series of virtual learning pathways within TORSH Talent to help providers stay on track with portfolio completion. Providers can also access resources aligned to ERS Scales in their custom-built TORSH Talent Resource Library. Additionally, thanks to TORSH Talent’s robust reporting and data analysis tools, the Quality Rated team is able to track and share quantitative progress on portfolios with providers, TAs, and CAPS.

Spotlight on the Inclusion & Behavior Team

A priority for the Inclusion and Behavior team is to strengthen their 1:1 coaching process. They’ve loaded standardized rubrics and frameworks to TORSH Talent so that coaching is aligned to evidence-based practices and coaches are using built-in reports to monitor growth and measure impact. TORSH Talent’s Coaching Corner portal centralizes access to all interactions, activities, and assignments which has improved provider follow-through on next steps from coaching conversations.

By leveraging TORSH Talent’s powerful tools, DECAL will save time and money. Program leaders can look forward to seeing the impact TORSH Talent will make in helping achieve higher-quality childcare environments and better child-teacher interactions.

Download the flyer to learn more about the partnership.

The post Georgia’s Renewed Focus on Early Educator Professional Learning appeared first on Torsh.

Oxford is using the TORSH Talent online professional learning and coaching platform to: 

• To support students’ self-reflection on their classroom practice
• To conduct four formal evaluations during the clinical year
• To facilitate ongoing coaching with students

In this short video Kimberly Eckert, Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Oxford Teachers College, shares how she’s using TORSH Talent and how it has revolutionized the coaching process for her and her students. 

Interested in learning more about how TORSH Talent can streamline, simplify, and strengthen coaching for your organization? Get in touch!

The post Coaching Aspiring Teachers for Instructional Excellence appeared first on Torsh.

Early childhood programs have long sought innovative methods to improve professional learning, communication, and collaboration to elevate performance and improve outcomes in an increasingly digital age. Embedded Instruction for Early Learning-CA (EIEL-CA), funded by the California Department of Education through the Desired Results Access Project with Napa County Office of Education, Research and Professional Development Center, is no different. In 2021 it was becoming clear that they needed a new approach to help educators implement evidence-informed practices across participating sites. On-site coaching was not always practical and virtual options were limited.

In addition to providing comprehensive and continuous support to their early childhood education teams to implement embedded instructional practices that promote child engagement, learning, and independence in everyday activities, routines, and transitions, EIEL-CA also wanted to strengthen leadership, increase strategic collaboration, practice continuous improvement, and improve data management. Finding a partner that could support all of these critical needs was their goal.

TORSH Talent Supports Embedded Instruction With Video Coaching

As they evaluated solutions, EIEL-CA quickly realized that TORSH Talent, a comprehensive educational platform specializing in video coaching to improve outcomes for young learners, was one of the few that met all their criteria. With TORSH Talent, EIEL-CA practitioners and leaders can easily share and access videos, resources, and materials which has transformed how they conduct coaching, progress monitoring, and teacher collaboration.

“When teaching teams are supported to use effective practices with their Practice-based Coaches, they work together to set goals, observe the use of effective practices, reflect and exchange feedback, and celebrate progress together in a collaborative partnership using Torsh video, resources, and data to inform their data-informed decision-making efforts. Our team is excited about what’s next for our collaboration!”

~ Therese Snyder M.A., Director of Professional Learning

Embedded Instruction for Early Learning-CA

EIEL-CA recognized right from the start that many of their team members are not very tech-savvy. Rather than shying away from a tech solution, TORSH and EIEL-CA worked together to ensure educators got the support they needed to be successful through training, a framework aligned with EIEL-CA’s existing virtual tools, and on-site coaching. This powerful combination of expert guidance and innovative technology bolstered EIEL-CA’s efforts, streamlining a once cumbersome and disjointed process into an exemplar of innovation in early childhood education professional learning.

One of the greatest areas of impact that EIEL-CA has experienced since implementing TORSH Talent is self-reflection. Educators do an initial assessment that they then review with their coaches. This enables educators to better understand their strengths and areas for improvement and provides an opportunity for them to dig into data and set goals. This process has empowered educators and is vital to the continuous improvement process.

What’s Next

TORSH and EIEL-CA plan to build on their strong partnership to further support instructional fidelity, educator reflection, and overall evidence-informed program improvement. Using TORSH Talent, EIEL-CA will leverage data to track the number of educators using evidence-informed practices with fidelity and to better understand how educators are growing and improving in their practice. They’ll also monitor educator confidence levels and assess the impact of teacher understanding at different stages of fidelity, even “fidelity in the moment,” on instructional methods. The program leaders can provide their team of specialists with more compelling and flexible professional learning that’s personalized and interactive. This collaboration with TORSH has resulted in significant early improvements in quality outcomes and support, paving the way for a better future for infants and toddlers with developmental delays.

About TORSH

TORSH, a New Orleans-based education technology company, is dedicated to improving student outcomes by increasing educator instructional effectiveness. TORSH Talent, an online coaching and professional learning platform, enables organizations to support educator growth through the entire development cycle of observation, assessment, goal setting, feedback, and coaching. Learn more by visiting torsh.co.

The post How California Enhanced Early Learning with Embedded Instruction Supported By Video Coaching appeared first on Torsh.

What’s most exciting about our work with CEC-RAP is that they serve a specific segment of the population, namely children from zero to three years of age with special needs, for whom early intervention can have a life-altering impact.

CEC-RAP focuses on, “the continued expansion of research, personnel preparation, and service delivery through collaboration with interrelated projects.” They serve kids with disabilities, communication disorders and/or multiple risks. CEC-RAP is not our typical client, as they aren’t in the business of training teachers. Rather, they help coach and train service providers such as speech, occupational and physical therapists, and social workers who are not pursuing degrees with Florida State but are already at work in the field. These service providers work with a child’s caregivers to coach them on strategies that will help them support the healthy development of their children. TORSH Talent, our customizable video-based coaching and professional learning platform, is how CEC-RAP is providing targeted coaching and training to providers thereby increasing the quality of the early intervention children and families receive.

Departments of Education and Health as well as individual programs from multiple states across the U.S. contract with CEC-RAP to receive this type of ongoing professional development for their service providers. We are very proud to be affiliated with a program that is doing so much for the youngest members of society. We feel confident that our work with CEC-RAP is changing the lives of these kids with special needs and helping prepare them to become lifelong learners.

The post Client Spotlight: Florida State University appeared first on Torsh.

Contents

• Zeta Charter Schools: Continuing a Legacy of High-Quality Education With the Support of TORSH Talent
• TORSH Talent Offers Teachers a Chance to Own Their Growth
• Developing a High-Performing Team Using TORSH Talent
• Ready to See How TORSH Talent Can Help Your Team Improve Practice?

Zeta Charter Schools: Continuing a Legacy of High-Quality Education With the Support of TORSH Talent

Zeta Charter Schools (ZCS) is a network of tuition-free PreK–5 public charter schools serving a diverse population of students in the Bronx district of New York City. 

The network was founded on an approach that combines rigorous academics, mind-body-soul cultivation, innovation, and high-quality family service. ZCS have historically demonstrated high-performing academic achievement in part due to their whole-child approach that prepares students for both content mastery and engages them in active participation and leadership roles –– better preparing them for their futures. 

Managing Director of Academics, Jessica Sie, knows that to continue ZCS’s legacy of bringing high-quality education to the communities they serve they need to support the growth of their staff, including accelerating and streamlining a professional development program for new teachers and expanding the leadership capacity of instructional leaders.

In their work to achieve these goals, leaders in the network discovered TORSH Talent, an online coaching and professional learning management system. “We have a population of teachers, some who are very experienced [and] others who are very new, and we really appreciate that [TORSH Talent] is a tool that meets individual teachers right where they are,” Sie said.

TORSH Talent Offers Teachers a Chance to Own Their Growth

At Zeta Charter Schools, leaders like Sie “think of teaching as a performance sport. You’re coming to work every day, you’ve prepared content, and you’re working with your classroom. We wanted to have the ability to see that teaching in action and to give feedback because a leader cannot be in every classroom all the time.” 

TORSH Talent solves that dilemma with its built-in video sharing, feedback, and collaboration tools. “Something so special and unique about TORSH Talent is that it provides us with a window into our teachers’ classrooms.” 

Teachers can log into TORSH Talent and upload short videos of a lesson anytime they want. This allows for increased opportunities for coaches, leaders, and even peers to provide targeted, time-stamped feedback that supports real-time growth.

“That is one reason [we chose] TORSH Talent,” Sie shared. “The platform’s flexibility [allows us to] be on the same page, upload content, and give feedback. We’re able to have purposeful assignments where our teachers will upload a specific area of content that they’re focused on, so even though a leader might not be able to observe a particular reading or science lesson five days in a row, a teacher could upload 10 minutes of that science lesson five days in a row.

Teachers find it helpful that all coaching activity, logs, and notes are housed in TORSH Talent. According to Sie, “What teachers really appreciate the most is the way TORSH Talent keeps track so it’s really easy for them to go back to say October 8, see the feedback they received, and then apply it

Developing a High-Performing Team Using TORSH Talent

But teachers aren’t the only ones benefiting from the ongoing, frequent feedback and support that TORSH Talent facilitates. ZCS has begun using the platform as their performance management system across all roles — “from operations, to psychologists, special education, and teachers; everyone in the building is using TORSH Talent as the tool to receive feedback.”

The ZCS team has uploaded all of their performance rubrics into TORSH Talent. That process has been powerful, according to Sie. 

“The rubrics that we have implemented for roles are very different for an operations team member, a secondary teacher, or a psychologist, and our leaders now have all of those rubrics in one place. With the click of a button, I can give feedback [using a rubric] to the psychologist in my building, an operations team member, and a teacher. It gives us a shared vocabulary and experience that focuses on the development of all of our teachers and staff across the building. We believe that it leads to thoughtful, consistent evaluation. We want our team members to understand what it looks like to be successful, and the rubrics we’ve developed support that and give insight into your exact role.”

Thanks to the rubrics, which include specific action steps, all ZCS staff know what they’re striving to achieve from day one of the school year. This engages the school community in conversations about how they’ll meet their goals and how they’re progressing. While coaching is continuous throughout the year, midway through and at the end of the school year meetings are held with each staff member in which they’re able to self-reflect on their areas of strength and the areas they want to keep growing. A direct manager then goes through the role-specific rubric in TORSH Talent and provides their feedback.   

Sie appreciates the clarity and transparency the TORSH Talent platform provides. “Before meetings, teachers and staff can see if they are meeting and exceeding expectations [on their individual rubric]. Then, anyone in the building at any time can look and see where [they are] performing now.”  

As ZCS looks ahead to the future, including expanding all the way up to grade 12, Sie is confident that TORSH Talent will help them build the capacity and instructional excellence that will be required.  

One of the most beneficial ways for staff the opportunities to learn their strengths and growth areas, feel supported in their classrooms, and enhance student experiences is by allowing our coaches to provide insights through classroom observation.

“[TORSH Talent] gives staff the opportunity to learn and to understand their individual strengths that they can share with others and their individual growth areas so that they can really grow and thrive. ”  

Ready to See How TORSH Talent Can Help Your Team Improve Practice?

Reach out to our team to learn more about how TORSH Talent can support your organization’s continuous improvement efforts with our robust, flexible, FERPA compliant functionality that supports anywhere, anytime coaching, training, and collaboration to develop the skills, knowledge, and capacity of teachers, leaders, and staff.

Want to read more about how other organizations are using TORSH Talent?

Read about how The Center: Early Childhood Professional Learning used TORSH Talent to switch to a virtual teacher coaching model, overcoming the barriers of time and distance associated with their state-wide Preschool for All coaching project, and becoming more equitable in the process.

The post Charter School Classroom Observation Case Study: Supporting Continuous Improvement with Organization-Wide Video-Based Coaching appeared first on Torsh.