ESSER FAQS

TORSH empowers school administrators and instructional leaders to:

• Provide and measure the effectiveness of on-demand professional development focused on mitigating learning loss and accelerating learning;
• Conduct virtual (and therefore non-disruptive) observations to provide ongoing, job-embedded support to teachers;
• Assess progress towards school-based goals;
• Empower educators and cultivate a data-driven culture;
• Ultimately contribute to the retention of high-quality teachers.

TORSH empowers coaches and mentors to:

• Extend their professional and geographical reach, provide data-driven feedback, and consolidate insights — all within an online community that allows them to efficiently deliver coaching while saving time;
• Engage in coaching conversations and discussions with mentees and colleagues through a variety of web-based collaboration tools, including time-stamped video comments;
• Identify and build an exemplar library to showcase great practice and provide on-demand resources for mentees.

TORSH empowers teachers to:

• Privately and securely reflect and collaborate on classroom practice by easily capturing, uploading, and sharing classroom videos with trusted peers and mentors;
• Self-assess, identify, and track areas of growth and professional development using their organization’s exemplar library, rubrics, and practice frameworks;
• Seek and receive timely, actionable feedback about content and pedagogy without classroom disruption;
• Promote classroom growth through data-driven decisions for instruction;
• Engage in a supportive and collaborative community of peers.

TORSH helps districts, schools, and educators develop and hone high-impact systems that:

• Accelerate educator efforts to implement and best support evidence-based interventions aimed specifically at addressing learning loss;
• Increase the effectiveness of programs addressing students’ academic needs and social, emotional, and mental health needs resulting from the pandemic;
• Expedite district programs in SEL and culturally-responsive teaching and learning, as well as practices that help accelerate implementation of trauma-focused programs;
• Drive effective induction programs that contribute to reducing teacher isolation, particularly among new teachers, and support their retention over time.

• TORSH facilitates more equitable and inclusive school systems by providing job-embedded and equitably-accessible professional development for educators, ensuring that all students are receiving an effective, supportive, and high-quality education;
• TORSH enables schools and districts to share and scale strong practice focused on culturally-responsive teaching, and to provide professional development and support with an equity lens.

• TORSH is a sustainable professional development solution that promotes growth and will grow with your organization;
• TORSH enables and supports job-embedded professional development, as well as reflection, planning, and collaboration, which are more effective and more sustainable than isolated professional development options.

• TORSH Talent is packed with a comprehensive suite of professional learning tools for educators and practitioners – everything needed to ensure a productive professional learning experience and to nurture a culture of continuous improvement and growth;
• TORSH Talent includes multiple avenues for formal group collaboration, such as: sharing groups, which can be created by administrators; and sharing circles, which can be created by any user.  These subgroups make it easy and efficient to directly ask for and receive feedback from peers;
• TORSH supports our community of teachers with a straightforward, user-friendly forum for users to informally pose and answer questions among their peers;
• TORSH Talent’s exemplar library feature allows schools, districts, and coaches to create a tailored library of videos, audio, documents, or presentations that are unique to their organization and that can be highlighted and replicated throughout the organization or network;
• TORSH facilitates professional development for school leaders and mentor teachers, such as building principals’ instructional leadership skills and empowering mentors with skills to best assist new teachers.