CUSTOMER SOLUTIONS OVERVIEW

Montgomery County Public Schools Creates Best

in Class Online Professional Development Solution

MCPS’ Unique Challenge

Montgomery County’s objective is to provide its 34,000 educators and staff with

Montgomery County Public Schools, a comprehensive centralized system for maintaining and tracking professional
Maryland development information across the entire district. The challenge is to empower teachers
and staff with information and tools to manage their own professional growth. At the
• 14,000 teachers and administrators
same time, the district seeks to provide a sound framework for process innovation and
• 20,000 district employees
organization transformation.
• 17th largest district in the U.S.
139,387 students
MCPS’ Unique Solution
•

• Baldridge Award Winner

• 25.8% of students are on free or reduced Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland, the largest district in the state,

meals programs and TNL partnered to develop the Professional Development Online (PDO) system that

• 78.5% of teachers have a Masters or combines Web-enabled management with online and face-to-face content delivery. A

equivalent degree web-based portal allows the district’s teachers and administrators to have their own

• 1311 course sections offered in PDO space on the system and also create a personalized professional development plan by

• 29,871 confirmed registrations for those accessing information targeted toward their individual needs.

courses via PDO Before implementing PDO, MCPS used a more typical, generic approach to professional
development that often was unrelated to district needs and objectives. Now, the MCPS
leadership team is focused on a much more systematic approach grounded in solid data
analysis.

The solution MCPS and TNL is developing allows everyone in the district to focus on
what matters most – improving student achievement. PDO engages teachers by
The MCPS PDO identifying and connecting them to the resources they actually need and want. It
Solution is featured
in the November enhances administrators’ leadership abilities by providing them with support for data-
2006 Harvard based decisions. PDO has helped MCPS to significantly enhance its ability to meet rising
Business Review
standards and maximize the performance of both teachers and students.

www.truenorthlogic.com
 CUSTOMER SOLUTIONS OVERVIEW

MCPS’ Program Results

PDO accomplishes several key objectives for MCPS, including: “In conjunction with TrueNorthLogic
• Automates registration, transcripts, announcements and course delivery and their team of experts, we will
• Captures and collates information from other departments, such as finance and HR significantly enhance our ability to
meet rising standards and maximize
• Tracks participation in and completion of professional development activities
the performance of both our
• Uses data and reliable assessments to evaluate the effectiveness of PD courses and
teachers and our students.”
programs
• Dr. Jerry Weast, Montgomery County
• Assists in developing training that can address identified gaps in teacher proficiency
Public Schools Superintendent
and student achievement
• Improves planning for make-up training when users can not attend the original
professional development activities
TrueNorthLogic at a Glance
• Allows office adminstrators to send emails to course participants directly from the
system without the use of external commmunication programs TrueNorthLogic (TNL) develops custom
integrated solutions that strengthen

Next Steps professional development access,

delivery and impact.
As MCPS’ PDO evolves, these features will be added to the system:
• Support staff will have access to training opportunities When leading school districts look for
• Individuals and administrators will have the ability to view and monitor individual better ways to streamline their training

certification and individual salary lane information and professional learning management
• Expedited payroll processing systems, TNL is their first source of
• The introduction of tools for teachers and staff to use to build personal learning plans expertise and implementation support.
• Expedited tuition reimbursement processes
TNL takes the approach that every
district has different needs and
environments. Each implementation is,
therefore, unique, because we configure
and customize our solutions to only those
tools that a client needs to accomplish
their objectives.

8160 South Highland Dr., Suite A-5

Sandy, UT 84093
1-866-422-6252
www.truenorthlogic.com