York Suburban School District Streamlines Staff Evaluations with Vector Evaluations+: A Digital Transformation for Efficiency, Customization, and Growth

The Challenge

York Suburban School District in Pennsylvania

Modernizing the district’s process for managing staff evaluations. The York Suburban School District is a small, successful suburban school district outside of York City, Pennsylvania. For years, the district relied on paper-based systems for its staff evaluations, which was a process that was inconvenient and inefficient. District leaders were seeking to revamp and modernize how the district manages and tracks evaluations for its 400 staff members to increase efficiency and improve reporting.

The Choice

The district was already using the Vector Training platform from Vector Solutions, which offers a library of online professional development courses and automates the staff training process. So, when it came time to look for an online system to manage staff evaluations, Vector’s Evaluations+ was a logical choice. The district selected Evaluations+ for several reasons:

• Customization: Evaluations+ offers customizable forms that can be aligned with specific district and state requirements, including Pennsylvania’s Act 13 summative evaluations forms and the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Framework for Observation & Practice for Classroom Teachers, a rubric based on the Charlotte Danielson Framework for Teachers. From a district-specific standpoint, York Suburban School District has a program to support students with autism, and with Evaluations+, the district can create customized observation forms that are specific to the “look for” for that program. “With Evaluations+, we’re able to customize the walkthrough forms to meet our goals and our vision for the district,” said Rebecca Lorfink, Assistant S
• Cost: Lorfink noted that some solutions have hidden costs, such as fees to add additional staff like custodians to the evaluation platform. However, with Evaluations+, districts can manage evaluations for all roles at one price and still differentiate the evaluation forms and processes to be specific to the role.
• Notifications: Administrators can send notifications to staff members through Evaluations+, such as updates or notifications of upcoming walkthroughs.
• Efficiency: Lorfink said other systems she had used in the past were clunky. However, Evaluations+ was easy to use and provided everything the district needed to move its evaluation process online. It provides a comprehensive solution to manage teacher evaluations.

The Change

Adopting Vector Solutions’ Evaluations+ has helped the York Suburban School District bring its staff evaluation process into the digital age. Lorfink said the rollout was smooth, and the feedback has been positive. Benefits have included:

• A more efficient approach to managing staff evaluations. Using Evaluations+ has significantly lessened the workload for administrators, reduced the reliance on paper-based systems, and made the evaluation process smoother for all involved.
• A single system for all staff evaluations, including paraprofessionals, custodians, and others, with the ability to customize forms and processes as needed for each specific job.
• The ability to customize forms to align with state requirements and district-specific needs. The district has also been able to use Evaluations+ to support its differentiated model for teachers’ growth and performance. Under the initiative, teachers who have demonstrated excellent performance can choose their own models for growth and set goals and activities related to that model. For instance, their activities could include doing a research project or engaging in peer coaching. Evaluations+ allows the evaluation forms for those teachers to be customized to highlight the specific goals and activities they selected for their growth and performance model. “We were able to customize the forms specific to exactly what we needed,” said Lorfink. She also likes that Evaluations+ supports video evaluations, although the district has not used that option yet.
• Greater accountability and improved outcomes for stakeholders. Evaluations+ provides a checklist of what principals need to do to complete the evaluations for their staff members. That has helped keep evaluations on track and improves accountability for both the principals and staff members in terms of making sure all steps are followed. Ultimately this results in a more thorough – and therefore a more useful – evaluation, which in turn better supports teacher growth.

Looking ahead, district administrators plan to add even more customization and explore the video observation tools, which will help the district enhance the professional growth process even more.

About Vector Solutions

Vector Solutions’ Professional Growth Suite brings together best-in-class professional development content and tools to manage staff evaluations and professional development, streamlining the professional growth process. Easy-to-use tools, simplified administrative workflows, and centralized reporting and tracking in one consolidated platform increase efficiency for administrators and empower professional growth and development for educators and staff.

The professional growth suite includes:

Evaluations+ maximizes professional growth opportunities with easy-to-use tools and customizable forms and workflows that help manage the evaluation and development process for educators and staff from start to finish.​

PD Tracking allows users to easily plan, manage, track, and evaluate all professional development events and activities for educators and staff – improving organization, streamlining communications, and saving valuable time.

Vector Training addresses individual professional development needs and supports ongoing professional growth with access to hundreds of high-quality online courses on important safety, prevention, and inclusive instruction topics.​