Position: Principal of Tanglewood Regional School
District: Prince George’s County Public School District (Clinton, MD)
Debra Pearce is the principal of Tanglewood Regional School in Prince George’s County Public School District (Clinton, MD). As a school Principal (and former district-level administrator), she is tasked daily with professional development, use of best practices and monitoring, and evaluation of student progress and staff competency. The RethinkEd program enables her to complete these tasks through a single portal. She is the first principal to complete RethinkEd’s Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) Advanced Training Course!
RethinkEd supports her administrative professional needs as well as her teachers’ needs. She has learned the program alongside her staff, which has benefited her because she is able to “talk the language” of the program. She says, “Being able to answer questions about the program and to coach staff in the use of the program and tools supports our culture of learning throughout the school. The use of technology as a tool is also domain for our administrative evaluation.” Having completed the training, she is able to discuss RethinkEd with her staff and understand the intricacies of the program. She has also found that her use of the platform encourages and facilitates the use of RethinkEd in the building.
For special educators, RethinkEd is a ready resource for classroom programming, data collection, professional development, and parent training. Ms. Pearce asserts that having these features in one platform helps her staff “work smarter, not harder” and “allows them to feel confident in their instruction.” RethinkEd’s platform supports her administration through data collection, lesson planning, and professional development.
The two most valuable aspects of the RethinkEd program for Ms. Pearce and her administration are the data collection components and professional development. Data collection is becoming increasingly important for all educators, especially those in special education. It is important that people can track, record, and show visual representations of data in the classroom. Teachers use RethinkEd to track IEP goals, collect data, and develop IEPs that are tailored to fit the needs of the student. Ms. Pearce says, “Special education teachers are under an incredible amount of scrutiny when it comes to data review. Having a tool like RethinkEd allows teachers and support staff to collect and share data that is professionally formatted and is defensible.” Teachers have benefited from RethinkEd’s data tracking as well as the platform’s professional development training.
RethinkEd’s online, on-demand professional training allows access to ABA training in schools that do not have district employed BCBAs. The training modules are aligned with the BACB outcomes and the RethinkEd certificates are an important piece of documentation that supports teacher and administrator portfolios. Ms. Pearce says that as a principal, it is great to know that “Staff can access Rethink from anywhere at any time for initial and for refresher training.” She also states that RethinkEd’s training courses are beneficial to students as well as teachers because “our students benefit from ABA practices while we are building our school system capacity to have access to BCBA staff.” Teachers and students are both reaping the benefits of RethinkEd in Prince George’s County Public School District.
“It is our hope that as we continue to use RethinkEd with all of our students, our communication of progress will further support our parents as partners.” She has been successful so far at working with parents and making them partners. Ms. Pearce is excited to continue to use RethinkEd and jump into the new school year!
