KickUp connects PD, coaching, walks, and evaluations in one modern platform — so leaders can grow teaching practice, faster.
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When Wisconsin Rapids' Frontline contract ended, Roxanne Filtz went looking for a system built specifically for educator effectiveness. With a staff that isn't shy about voicing concerns, Roxanne constantly hears: "I love KickUp." "This is really easy to use."
A year in, she can see:
Districts that made the switch say the same thing about where they started.
Your team has built elaborate processes just to keep the platform from losing work.
Staff ask how to complete their evaluations — even after they've done it before.
Someone manually reconciles attendance, credit, or payroll for PD every single cycle.
PD sessions go under-attended — and nobody's sure if it's the reminder, the registration process, or the catalog.
Every support ticket starts from scratch. Nobody on the other end knows your district.
You can't tell whether your PD is moving the needle on teacher performance — because the data lives in different places.
The most user-friendly professional development management system on the planet.
An evaluations system for every staff role – with unmatched flexibility and AI-enabled tools for evaluators.
A coaching, mentorship and walkthrough system with data so clear, your leaders can actually use it.
When Principals spend their evenings with multiple Frontline tabs open, the instructional thinking gets crowded out.
With KickUp, observation documentation time is cut by up to 80% and feedback gets sharper because principals aren't exhausted by the time they get to the part that matters.
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I've played in all the systems — paper forms, Google Docs, Frontline, all of it. KickUp is the easiest to use I've worked with. No one wants to hear about another new system, but when the tool is actually better, you stop fighting it and start using it.
KickUp's Instructional Leader Intelligence surfaces patterns across classrooms, showing what's working and where teachers need support, so feedback becomes more consistent and specific for every teacher.
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Districts coming from Frontline report cutting PD Management time by up to 75% after switching to KickUp.
KickUp Learning was designed so staff can find sessions, register, confirm attendance, and pull their own transcripts without ever emailing you.
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When evaluations, coaching, walkthroughs, and PD live in siloed systems, keeping a pulse on what's happening and whether it's making a difference is harder than it should be.
Yes. Wisconsin's Educator Effectiveness Grant provides $88 per educator annually to cover costs associated with system development, training, software, support, and resources — and KickUp qualifies as an allowable expense under that software and support category.
The grant is a non-discretionary annual allocation, meaning every LEA required to use the EE System is eligible to apply and receive funds each year. For most districts, this makes KickUp a budget-neutral decision.
For questions about applying or allowable uses, contact DPI's Educator Development Grants team at EdDevGrants@dpi.wi.gov.
Yes, KickUp is a commercial partner with the Danielson Group, allowing districts to seamlessly use and adapt Danielson-aligned tools. KickUp supports any instructional framework — Danielson, Stronge Model, Get Better Faster, or one your district built itself — across any staff type: teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, support staff. Districts start from KickUp's best-practice templates or build from scratch, and can make changes mid-year without IT involvement.
Evaluation cycles, coaching forms, walkthrough look-fors, and PD tags can all be aligned to the same frameworks, so every touchpoint is pulling in the same direction.
Read more about the KickUp-Danielson Partnership →
KickUp replaces Frontline's educator development products — PD management, instructional coaching, walkthroughs, and teacher evaluation. It does not replace Frontline's hiring, onboarding, or absence management modules. Most districts run KickUp alongside those tools, or alongside Red Rover for absence management.
What districts tend to notice most after switching is how much lighter PD management feels, and how much more visible their data becomes.
Lincoln-Way found they could do in hours what used to take days.
Twin Rivers described getting back 75% of the time they used to spend just keeping the system running.
The biggest differences show up in three places.
Flexibility: KickUp supports unlimited evaluation cycles for any staff type or framework, and changes can be made mid-cycle without rebuilding from scratch. Stevenson High School District — one of the top-ranked high schools in the country — runs 17 distinct evaluation cycles in KickUp. Read their story →
Leader and staff experience: Evaluators walk into observations with tools that work with them, not against them. AI timestamps notes and tags evidence to your framework in real time — cutting scripting and write-up time by up to 80%. Feedback is faster to write and clearer to receive. Staff always know exactly where they stand in the process and what's expected next. And the interface is intuitive enough that most districts need no formal training — teachers and evaluators figure it out on their own.
Visibility: Every leader sees exactly where evaluation progress stands — by teacher, by step, by evaluator — without running a report. District-level leaders get the same real-time picture across all schools and staff groups, so gaps get flagged before they become problems.
Yes. KickUp's heatmap dashboards show average ratings by component across evaluators — making rater drift visible at a glance. Leaders can spot calibration gaps without pulling manual reports, and use the data to drive calibration conversations with their teams.
For onsite training, calibration workshops, and consulting services on Framework implementation, The Danielson Group offers those directly. We're happy to facilitate introductions as useful.
Most districts are surprised by how smooth the transition is. From the moment you sign, you have a dedicated Customer Success Manager and an onboarding specialist working alongside your district. KickUp handles the heavy lifting — configuration, data sync, SSO setup, and training — in close collaboration with your team.
If you're migrating historical data from Frontline or another system, your CSM works alongside your district's technical team and KickUp's technical integration team to determine what to import, format historical records, and ensure the right people have access to the right data from day one.
KickUp typically kicks off 4–8 weeks before your target go-live date, with weekly working sessions throughout. Timelines can be accelerated or extended based on your needs.Training doesn't end at launch — as your team changes and your use of the platform deepens, KickUp continues to provide check-ins, new feature training, and refresher support throughout the partnership.
Yes. KickUp is SOC 2 Type II certified, FERPA compliant, and WCAG 2.0 AA accessible. All data is hosted on AWS in U.S.-based data centers and encrypted at rest and in transit. KickUp has maintained 99.98%+ uptime over the last two years. Full documentation is available at trust.kickup.co.
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