Building a Reusable Onboarding and Professional Development System for Teachers 

At an online high school, new teachers had no consistent, high-quality onboarding experience to rely on, and no scalable system existed for delivering one across cohorts. Existing teachers faced a related gap: there was no ongoing resource they could return to throughout the year to keep developing their practice.

The solution was a reusable onboarding and professional development system built to serve both audiences. A four-day in-person onboarding event was designed for annual reuse, paired with a virtual version for teachers joining after the initial event. Rather than treating onboarding as a one-time experience, much of the content was built to serve existing teachers as well, giving them a resource to return to for continued learning throughout the year. A curated repository of vetted job aids supported this ongoing use.

The results bore that design out. Post-onboarding surveys found the training extremely helpful, with teachers reporting they were likely to use the material going forward. Program leadership reported that the training noticeably improved teacher confidence and alignment with school expectations. Portions of the training content and process remain in use today.