At The Princeton Review, we know that professional development is most effective when it is based on timely and relevant data, linked closely to curriculum and state standards, and delivered in time to improve student understanding before it is too late. We also believe that in an age of accountability, professional development should be effective in improving student outcomes and teacher satisfaction. While similar goals may inform the conventional school-based coaching model, we believe that it is fundamentally unable to fulfill them in a cost-effective way.

Simply put, the school-based approach requires too many coaches with highly developed skills and experience in teaching (across many grades), staff development, assessment, curriculum development, and administration. Because such people are hard to find, and because they are generally offered little more than a teacher's salary, districts cans seldom provide for all of their schools, especially in math.

The Princeton Review's methodology for next-generation teacher coaching addresses the limitations of school-based coaching by dividing the superset of necessary skills among three specialized teams, who together deliver professional development in collaboration with regional leadership tiers:

• The Research & Development team creates and collates professional development modules that are delivered by our Content Specialists to your teachers and staff developers. This professional development toolkit includes online instructional materials to which teachers also have access from any Internet-connected computer. Research and Development also develops benchmark assessments closely tied to the schools curriculum.
• The Needs Assessment team collects information about each teacher from benchmark assessments, school administrators, and the teachers themselves. It then integrates this data with the schedules of teachers and math specialists in order to create an individualized development plan for each teacher.
• The Content Specialist-Consultants deliver the professional development to teachers in small groups and one-on-one sessions. Specialists use modules created by the Research & Development group and customized to each teacher's needs. Careful scheduling of the specialists by the Needs Assessment team allows consultants to work with most teachers in each school for, on average, 45 minutes each week.

This methodology and structure enhances the three key aspects of any effective program of professional development:

Relevance—Using assessment data and administrator input ensures that teachers get the professional development they need in time for it to make a difference to their students right now.

Flexibility—Professional development plans are designed to conform to varied teacher schedules and are tailored to address individually identified needs. These "IEPs for professional development" evolve over time in response to ongoing data analysis and the teacher's evolving mastery.

Scalability—Our team structure and sophisticated scheduling means better supported and better focused coaches, who can in turn better support more teachers. Using fewer coaches for a district means we can deploy a greater number of highly qualified coaches than would be possible under the conventional school-based model while still offering a cost savings of 20-30%.

While our consultants generally provide professional development directly to teachers in schools across the district, we can also enhance existing school-based professional development programs where districts choose to retain their own coaches. In those cases we provide the same support systems, needs assessment, curricular R&D that scaffold our own consultants, integrated tightly into your district's instructional leadership teams. As always, we work with you to craft and deliver exactly the service and support you need.