Mundelein Leaders Create District-Wide Transparency & Support Throughout the Evaluation Process

All aspects of Mundelein’s evaluation process are now centralized on the TeachBoost platform, from informal observations to summatives. Read more about their success story!

About the District 

Located in a northern suburb of Chicago, Mundelein Elementary School District 75 serves over 1500 students, employs over 100 teachers and is composed of four schools: an early childhood center, early learning center (K-2), intermediate grade school (3-5), and a middle school (6-8). 

What challenges were they looking to address?

Having recently adopted the 2013 Danielson Framework, leadership wanted to ensure that everyone was following the same protocols for an evaluation cycle. The district was using a homegrown system to support the process which made it challenging to ensure that everyone was using the same protocols to share and receive feedback with consistency and fidelity. The leadership team knew they had to make the whole process transparent and supportive so it would have the greatest impact on teacher growth.

Why did Mundelein need a new evaluation platform?

Prior to adopting TeachBoost Pro, the district was relying solely on Google documents and folders to support observations and evaluations. Assistant Superintendent for Teaching & Learning, Dr. Sarah Cacciatore shared, “It was nearly impossible to manage the evaluation process this way. When I started in this role, I immediately noticed the small inconsistencies of the process. When you’re relying on a Google doc template, there’s more freedom to tweak things which led to small language changes to the rubric. For example ‘areas of growth’ and ‘areas of success’ might be altered to ‘areas for improvement’ and ‘accomplishments.’ While the tenor is roughly the same, it’s not the same meaning. By finding a platform that would accommodate our framework, we knew that it would streamline not only the process, but the language we are using.” 

What TeachBoost Pro features have been most valuable and why?

The way the district has been able to streamline and create a transparent process has been a game changer for leadership and their teachers. Dr. Cacciatore shared, “We went from having formal and informal evaluations of teachers where we were hand coding, highlighting, copying and pasting to ensure that feedback was aligned to the framework. Now, we’re able to do that quickly and accurately with TeachBoost’s Sketch tool, across multiple domains. It’s mind blowing how much time we’re saving! What would normally take 2.5 hours for a formal evaluation, now only takes up to 45 mins.” 

Teacher-focused features have also been a big hit. Now, all teachers are able to access an easy-to-use dashboard, where everything is on one page. Teachers receive real-time, transparent performance data aligned to the Danielson Framework, access summarized evidence and feedback, own their professional development plan and have easy access to next steps and goals that promote professional growth. 

What changes have you seen since you implemented TeachBoost Pro?

Leadership is now able to see and manage the process from a global perspective because the whole cycle can be accessed from the TeachBoost Pro platform. From both a communication and HR perspective, everyone is able to stay on track and spot any issues in advance. 

With the district’s focus on literacy and the right tools and systems in place, Cacciatore shared, “Leadership wants to get everyone through a full coaching cycle and continue to have data-driven conversations about where to focus our professional development and support.” 

The Outcome: Access to real-time data and insights that drive learning across the district.

All aspects of Mundelein’s evaluation process are now centralized on the TeachBoost platform, from informal observations to summatives. TeachBoost has enabled:

• Customization of the observation, evaluation, and professional development process
• Centralized place to store evaluation targets and complete observation cycles by tracking completion rates
• Teacher-driven goal-setting and ownership
• Timely feedback and two-way communication
• Centralized, real-time reporting that shows progress toward goals
• Ability to pinpoint holes and gaps at the individual, department, school, and district level