How On-demand Videos Are Accelerating Teacher Growth in Rural Arkansas

Cross County High School in Cross County School District in Arkansas, was working to strengthen its teachers’ understanding of strong instructional practices. With limited opportunities to observe other classrooms, it was difficult for teachers to build a shared picture of how specific instructional practices, such as questioning or lesson structure and pacing, looked across a range of classroom settings.

For more than a decade, the district has partnered with NIET to strengthen instruction and build teacher leadership through the TAP System, leading to significant student achievement growth. In 2023, Cross County School District outperformed students statewide in English, math, reading, and science. A key driver of this progress has been giving teachers clear models of effective instruction each week in professional learning and classroom coaching, and now, increasingly, through the use of technology and video.

Stephen Prince, Inaugural NIET Fellow and Master Teacher at Cross County High School, leveraged EE PASS coaching resources for on-demand video resources to strengthen and extend his support to teachers. The platform offered immediate access to videos of real classroom lessons, across grade levels and subject areas, aligned to an evidence-based framework for instructional practice, giving teachers the clear models they had been asking for.

He selected videos that matched the indicators teachers were working on and used them during professional learning to walk through lessons step-by-step. Teachers watched, paused, analyzed, and discussed specific instructional moves together. This created a consistent, accessible way to observe effective teaching in action, even when in-person observation wasn’t possible.

Most importantly, the videos helped shift coaching conversations away from general descriptions and toward concrete evidence.

What I appreciate most is the ability to analyze evidence side-by-side with teachers. EE PASS makes the evaluation process transparent and shifts the conversation from a score to meaningful reflection. Instead of asking teachers to take my word for it, I can show them exactly what strong instruction looks like and help them identify strategies they can apply immediately in their own classrooms.

Stephen Prince, Master Teacher and Inaugural NIET Fellow, Cross County High School

By integrating video examples into weekly professional learning, Cross County is giving teachers the tools they need to reflect, grow, and lead their own improvement, showing how the right resources can empower educators.

Cross County High School's Results:

Cross County High School has partnered with NIET for more than a decade to implement the TAP System for Teacher and Student Advancement. In recognition of its sustained instructional leadership and teacher-effectiveness work, Cross County High School was awarded NIET’s 2022 Founder’s Award and received the $50,000 grand prize. The foundation of strong instructional leadership has positioned Cross County to continue improving, finding new ways to scale effective instructional practices and accelerate teacher growth.

Teacher growth: The ability to analyze real classroom videos together helped teachers better understand instructional expectations and implement new strategies with confidence. EE PASS has become one of Prince's go-to resources for supporting both individual teachers and teams of teachers during professional learning.

Explore a Free EE PASS Resource:

This resource reflects the kind of real-classroom model leaders like Prince use to help teachers build a shared understanding of effective instruction.

Video - 8th Grade English Lesson, Full Lesson: This full English Language Arts lesson shows a teacher guiding students to identify a theme using evidence from multiple sources. She reviews prior learning, models expectations, and uses academic language to help students refine their ideas and select strong supporting evidence. Students engage in structured peer feedback and finish with a short written task to demonstrate progress toward the day’s goal.

Bring EE PASS to Your District

Are you ready to explore our extensive, research-backed resource library to improve educator effectiveness? Contact info@niet.org today to learn more about EE PASS.