Johnston County Schools (JCS), located in central North Carolina, has selected ASCD as its new professional development partner. JCS is one of the largest school systems in the state, serving more than 32,000 students across 44 schools.
A search committee composed of the district’s principals, as well as members of the curriculum and instruction and human resources teams, sought a solution that would address the individual professional development needs of more than 3,500 staff members. In addition, it would also need to support existing professional learning communities (PLCs) and help the school system to implement the new Common Core State Standards.
To meet these two challenges, JCS has selected ASCD's PD In Focus® online professional development tool, which offers educators on-demand access to hundreds of hours of videos as well as related resources and activities. The PD In Focus tool is designed to bring practical classroom applications to life, coupling examples from contemporary teaching with insights from some of the most important voices in education today. JCS will implement the online resource throughout the district in the coming months.
“Johnston County Schools seek to foster a flame of learning within each child that will last a lifetime,” said Dr. Fran Riddick, Director of Human Resource Development in Johnston County Schools. “To help us reach this goal, we sought a partner that would work with us in a consultative fashion to deliver the best in-class professional development resources tailored to meet our specific goals. ASCD exceeded these criteria and is the right partner to support Johnston County Schools’ mission to continually improve our services of education and meet our community’s requirements for quality.”
The PD In Focus tool helps users find the material most relevant to their needs, using its search and tagging capabilities. Since the tool is web-based, users can access it anywhere with an Internet connection, including from mobile devices and tablets.
