McREL and SearchSoft take educator evaluation systems nationwide
Denver—McREL, a nonprofit education research organization and a recognized leader in educator effectiveness and evaluation, and SearchSoft, a leading developer in education software systems, have teamed up to provide an online version of McREL’s Educator Evaluation Systems to schools and districts nationwide.
More than 130,000 teachers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Montana, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands are currently being evaluated using McREL’s evaluation system. The McREL teacher evaluation rubrics are based on 40-plus years of research on effective teaching and professional practice, including McREL’s best-selling ASCD publication, Classroom Instruction That Works, and align closely with the Model Core teaching Standards (InTASC), adopted by the Council of Chief State School Officers.
The McREL principal evaluation system is based on 30 years of research, as reported in the ASCD book, School Leadership That Works and experienced by more than 15,000 principals nationwide through McREL’s Balanced Leadership® program.
SearchSoft Solutions is the K-12 education market’s leading provider of Human Resources productivity solutions. SearchSoft’s cloud-based technology platform is currently used by thousands of schools across the country to efficiently hire highly qualified teachers and administrators. SearchSoft will deliver a web-based version of McREL’s trusted evaluation instruments upon this proven platform. SearchSoft Solutions will also lead the sales and support efforts of McREL’s online solutions.
“We are excited to provide our research-based evaluation instruments via SearchSoft’s state-of-the-art technology,” said Tim Waters, McREL’s President and CEO. “Our clients will benefit tremendously from the SearchSoft system’s intuitive design and ease of use, allowing them to quickly conduct, track, and analyze educator evaluations.”
"Evaluation and feedback for educators are important tools in the national pursuit of better educational outcomes for students. McREL has been a pioneer and a leader in the work to bring cutting-edge and proven research to these tools,” said SearchSoft President Mark Strickland. “At SearchSoft, our staff is excited to be their partner in bringing a new generation of solutions to our customers and to the field. We look forward to working with McREL to make a lasting positive contribution to public education."
McREL is also developing a nationwide network of intermediate agency partners, such as EIRC in New Jersey, to provide professional development and other assistance to help districts implement the state-of-the-art evaluation system.