Case study · K–12 International School
Raising Teacher Performance Through Professional Development
A professional development system that lifted teacher evaluation results by 40% and new-teacher performance by 60%.
- Role
- Head of Research & Development / High School Coordinator
- Location
- Taif, Saudi Arabia
- Years
- 2015 – 2020
Skills: L&D Strategy, Facilitation, Coaching
+40%
increase in teacher evaluation results
+60%
new-teacher improvement from time of hiring
1st
AdvancED-accredited international school in the city
Overview
As Head of R&D and High School Coordinator, I owned how teachers grew: designing the professional development programs, evaluating classroom performance, and onboarding new hires into a system that measurably improved their teaching.
The challenge
Teacher quality varied widely, and new teachers arrived with strong subject knowledge but uneven classroom strategies. The school needed a development system — not one-off workshops — that would show up in evaluation results.
The approach
- 1
Designed school-wide professional development programs to train and strengthen teaching strategies
- 2
Built the evaluation loop: assessed teacher performance and fed results back into development plans
- 3
Created onboarding and development tracks for new teachers, facilitated jointly with administrators
- 4
Tied development to recognition — the same system supported the school's first international accreditation
Inside the development system
Draft notes sourced from the school's anonymized professional development policy, the in-service training (InSeT) schedule, and the observation rubric. Not yet reviewed by Hanna.
Four strands
- Staff orientation: workplace procedures, health and emergency guidelines, cultural awareness, and a collaborative culture for new and permanent staff
- Class observation and evaluation: new teachers observed intensively, often daily and unannounced, until the school's teaching standards were met; permanent teachers evaluated once per quarter
- In-service training (InSeT): short courses, seminars, and workshops run through the school year
- Local and international conferences: delegates selected from the staff for external events
Observation as self-assessment
Observed lessons were recorded so teachers could review their own practice, and teachers were encouraged to sit in on colleagues' classes during free periods. The observation loop fed directly into each teacher's development plan.
Teachers teaching teachers
InSeT sessions were delivered by the teachers themselves on a fortnightly schedule. The 2019 to 2020 calendar ran to at least thirty sessions, with topics from digital learning and public speaking to ethical decision-making and refreshing math skills, each tied to one of the school's target values such as humility, acceptance, risk-taking, and diversity.
A rubric for every session
Each session was scored on six criteria, on a 1, 3, 5 scale from emerging to exceeding expectations: organization, topic knowledge, use of multiple means of representation, audience engagement, critical commentary on the target value, and originality and creativity. Organization was anchored to the number of sources cited, and multiple means rewarded presenters who went beyond slides to skits, polls, and small-group work.
Sources: Professional development policy, InSeT schedule and rubric (SY 2019 to 2020), all anonymized, from the teacher-development research and materials archives.
Research
The anonymized PD policy, the classroom observation rubric, and graduate research on a teacher development platform.
Training materials
Classroom management training package (deck, facilitator guide, worksheet), the anonymized INSET schedule, and a workshop photo.