The Impact of Supporting Teacher Choice at the Bluffton Exempted Village School District

At the Bluffton Exempted Village School District (BEVSD), Superintendent Greg Denecker and school principals value and trust their teachers. So, they provide teachers with the autonomy to choose the instructional tools they use in their classrooms. When school leaders engage in these empowering behaviors, the impact can be significant. In fact, research around teacher motivation indicates that choice is an important condition that motivates teachers and helps them feel success.¹

Because BEVSD school leaders believe in giving their teachers choice in the instructional materials they use, they adopted TpT School Access, giving their teachers the ability to select materials from a library of over 3 million TpT resources through a school-funded subscription.

By trusting his teachers and providing them with the opportunity to choose their instructional materials through TpT School Access, Superintendent Denecker is empowering his teachers to provide the best instruction that they can for their students. As a result, we heard and observed that BEVSD teachers are:

More motivated to be creative in their teaching.
75% of the teachers we spoke with across the district shared that they were able to be more creative because their administrators provided them with the power to choose instructional materials. Specifically, the materials they select impact the ways in which they deliver content and engage with students.

Better able to use instructional materials to respond to student interests and thus build relationships with their students.
BEVSD teachers said that, because of the choice they’re provided, they’re able to ensure that the content they present to their students resonates with them. Of the teachers we spoke with, 69% talked about being responsive to their students’ interests with the instructional materials they select, which helps them develop relationships with their students.