Teachscape and LoTi Connection Announce Partnership to Provide Principal Evaluation System

PRLog (Press Release) - Feb. 9, 2013 - Carlsbad, CA, February 1, 2013 – Teachscape, the leader in delivering Web-based professional learning content, innovative technologies, and expert services to improve teaching practice, and LoTi Connection, a longstanding leader in educator assessment, evaluation, and professional development services, have partnered to offer the New Jersey DOE-approved LoTi Principal Evaluation System. Based on the Levels of Teaching Innovation (LoTi) Framework (Moersch 1995), the LoTi Principal Evaluation system emphasizes proactive instructional leadership, high expectations, and strategic planning as part of a sustainable and collaborative continuous improvement process.
Through this alliance, Teachscape has combined its best-of-breed online observer training and assessment system, tools for conducting in-classroom and video- based observations, and online professional development content with LoTi’s research-based solutions for increasing student academic achievement, improving campus cultures, sustaining continuous improvement, and growing support for the tenets of digital age teaching, learning, and leadership.

The Teachscape and LoTi Connection partnership stems from both companies’ desire to help school systems improve the accuracy, reliability, and validity of the principal observation process. The research-based LoTi Principal Evaluation system provides a common vocabulary for educational leaders to quantify best practices based on a continuum of didactic policy standards and enhanced teacher and administrator feedback. The instrument contains six (6) domains of professional practice that include 3-8 observation categories with performance criteria that have been specifically aligned to the 2008 ISLLC Professional Standards for School Leaders (Educational Leadership Policy Standards).

The LoTi Principal Evaluation System was developed based on the statistically- significant achievements experienced by students, teachers, and principals of schools following the LoTi School Improvement Model. School systems following the LoTi School Improvement Model—otherwise known as LoTi Digital Age Schools—use the critical components of 21st Century learning as articulated by the Partnership for the 21st Century Skills (i.e., critical thinking, collaboration, problem-solving, and self-directed investigations) to increase student academic achievement in core content areas based on AYP targets. The emphasis is on contextual learning that enables students to transfer their content understanding to real world situations using the available technology assets in the classroom. Teachers and Principals following the LoTi model undergo thorough staff development training and regular informal walkthrough observations that prepare them to meet professional and personal goals.

“Together with Teachscape, we can provide school systems using varied teacher evaluation systems with an authentic companion evaluation for their instructional leaders,” said Dr. Chris Moersch, Executive Director of LoTi Connection. “Proactive instructional leadership is the key to elevating student academic achievement and improving classroom instructional practices. The LoTi Principal Evaluation System provides the needed “look-fors” that identify and reinforce instructional leadership in the 21st Century.”

For over 27 years, LoTi Connection has provided assessment, evaluation, and professional development services to thousands of school systems throughout the nation and the world. The LoTi assessment has been taken by 150,000+ teachers and principals; over 2,000 Certified LoTi Mentors have been trained to conduct LoTi Framework Orientations; and ten states have implemented LoTi assessments and/or professional development services as part of a statewide adoption.

About LoTi Connection
LoTi Connection is a longstanding educational consulting firm specializing in the integration of 21st Century skills into K-12 classrooms. Over the past three decades, LoTi Connection has served educators in 37 states, Puerto Rico, China, Japan, Korea, Australia, and Saudi Arabia from its office in Carlsbad, California. LoTi Connection's staff and qualified pool of educational consultants currently provide a variety of educational staff development, teacher/principal evaluation, assessment, and school improvement services to schools and districts throughout the country and beyond. Rather than searching for one initiative that promises turnkey success, LoTi Connection considers factors that have yielded statistically significant outcomes to aid school systems in creating their own "recipe" for high performance. LoTi’s founder, Dr. Chris Moersch, is the author of the internationally-recognized and research-based LoTi (Levels of Teaching Innovation) Framework which has been used in over 100 research studies and dissertations worldwide. For the past seven years, Dr. Moersch has been the principal investigator of the LoTi Digital Age School movement—a school improvement initiative focused on increasing student academic achievement in low performing schools nationally through the strategic integration of 21stCentury skills in the core content areas. To learn more about LoTi Connection its collection of professional services for educators, visit http://www.loticonnection.com.

About TeachscapeTeachscape uniquely combines innovative technology, engaging content and expert services to develop great teachers. From its Classroom Walkthrough technology, to its powerful web-based content delivery platform, to its online masters programs, Teachscape’s award-winning products and services have been inspired by its dedication to sparking transformative change in teaching practice.  Since 1999, Teachscape has worked with schools and school districts, charter networks, archdioceses, universities and state education departments to measurably and continuously improve the effectiveness of teachers and instructional leaders to produce gains in student achievement. Teachscape’s partners include Charlotte Danielson, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ETS, Stanford University, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Kogeto to help shape its vision, its products, and its strategies. To learn more about Teachscape and its complete collection of professional development offerings, go to http://www.teachscape.com.