School Board of Orange County, Florida

Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) will address the shortage of qualified media specialists by recruiting candidates from within the district's instructional workforce and providing comprehensive professional learning through a cohort model and mentorship. Intended project results are to 1) improve OCPS media specialist recruitment and retention, 2) develop and implement a replicable aspiring media specialist preparedness program with coursework, shadowing, and cohort activities, and 3) create a replicable shadowing program. Key deliverables include a course shared on the LMS Commons accessible to other institutions and a toolkit featuring recruitment strategies, communication materials, cohort activities, and other resources to support replication of the project both within OCPS and by other school districts.