Independent Research on PD 360

The PD 360 Impact Assessment revealed statistically meaningful advantages favoring schools with PD 360 versus schools in their respective districts that did not use the learning tool. Schools whose teachers participated in PD 360 (n=422) significantly outperformed their respective Districts in student performance in both Reading and Mathematics. Moreover, performance data implies that the gains made by participating schools actually boosted the performance data for the entire districts in which they were nested by “pulling up the district averages.”

Statistically significant and resounding advantages were identified favoring schools with PD 360. The higher the quantified utilization, the greater the statistical advantage. High utilization led to performance advantages ranging from twice to 15 times the gains in proficiency rates versus district averages. Low utilization led to gains in proficiency rates from 10% to twice the district averages.

A series of independent studies conducted between 2007 and 2011 throughout the United States suggest the correlation between significant increases in standardized test scores in a single academic year, and the use of online professional development for teachers. In multiple studies, schools with the highest gains demonstrated increased levels in the percentage of users that viewed online professional development. In other words, the more teachers participated in PD 360 content, the greater the gains students were able to achieve.

Predictors of Success reviewed year-over-year changes in student achievement in 734 schools based on their utilization of PD 360 and Observation 360's on-demand professional learning. Results showed that schools with high educator engagement in these resources significantly outperformed schools whose educators had lower levels of engagement. Higher engagement schools showed statistically significant gains in the number of students who tested advanced or proficient, and showed significant improvements in teacher retention and the number of students with college-bound goals, and decreases in disciplinary issues and dropouts. 

This 2011 study measures data collected from 422 Title 1 schools utilizing the professional development platform PD 360. Title 1 students are traditionally known to represent among the greatest challenges for showing dramatic improvement, and they often struggle to close performance gaps with their non-Title 1 peers, if that gap can ever be closed at all.

Data from this study verified that Title 1 students whose teachers participate in PD 360 experience significantly greater gains in standardized test scores than their peers whose teachers do not. Additionally, the data show that Title 1 students outperformed and outgrew their respective districts when their teachers participated in PD 360, a remarkable finding with great implications for educational success.

This 2011 study measures data collected from 294 schools across 19 districts in Hawaii, utilizing the professional development platform PD 360. With information collected from dozens of elementary, middle, and secondary schools, the study finds that schools utilizing PD 360 are at a distinct, measurable advantage to others in their districts, year after year. Schools using PD 360 are found not only to exceed district benchmarks, but also outperform neighboring schools on assessments, and improve at a more rapid pace than the their collective districts.

Among its finding, the study concludes that the average gains for schools utilizing PD 360 total to the following:

This 2011 study measures data collected from 160 elementary, middle, and secondary schools in Wake County, North Carolina utilizing the professional development platform PD 360. Many of the schools measured began the year with lower assessment scores than other schools in their district.

Despite this significant statistical disadvantage, data from this study verified that Wake County students whose teachers utilize PD 360 experience significantly greater gains in standardized test scores than their peers whose teachers do not. And not only were PD 360 students’ gains greater, but their rate of growth nearly tripled that of their non-PD 360 peers.

This 2009 study measures data collected from 187 elementary and middle schools across 8 states utilizing professional development platform PD 360. The study identifies statistically significant and resounding advantages favoring schools with PD 360. All schools utilizing the platform experienced substantial returns—and more use directly correlated to better results. Schools characterized as “high-utilizing” PD 360 users achieved performance advantages ranging from two to 15 times the gains in proficiency rates versus district averages. Even low-utilizing schools succeeded in improving proficiency rates from 10% to twice the district averages.

Among its findings, the study concludes the following:

This 2008 study measures data collected from schools in St. John the Baptist Parish Public Schools in New Orleans Louisiana. With onsite training and guidance from Learning Framework 360, students in the St. John Parish showed dramatic improvement in all grades and in a variety of subjects: namely reading, math, science, and social studies.

Improvements were so dramatic, in fact, that student of in Saint John produced results that significantly exceeded those experienced by the other schools in the state, collectively.  By the end of 2008, data shows St. John to have closed the achievement gap in every category for which they began at a disadvantage.