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Understanding Roles in Proserva

Learn about the three core roles in Proserva: Standard Teacher, Site Admin, and Network Admin. What each one can do, and common scenarios for how districts assign them.

Written by Cam Bayly

Phase 1: Understanding Roles in Proserva

This guide will help you understand how roles work in Proserva. Roles determine what every person in your district can see, do, and manage. Getting familiar with them now will help you know who needs what access as your team uses the platform.

This guide is written for district administrators and anyone responsible for overseeing how their staff use Proserva.

The Three Core Roles

Proserva uses three primary roles to control access across your district. They follow a simple hierarchy:

Standard Teacher → Site Admin → Network Admin

Each level includes all the capabilities of the role below it, plus additional privileges.

Standard Teacher (Base Level)

This is the default role for most users: teachers, coaches, and instructional staff who need access to Proserva's professional growth tools but do not need administrative portal access.

What Standard Teachers can do:

  • Access Professional Development courses and content

  • Apply for and renew teaching licenses

  • Participate in observations and conferences

  • Set and track professional goals

  • Edit their own profile

  • Coaches can make limited edits to profiles of the teachers they coach

What Standard Teachers cannot do:

  • Access the Site Portal or Network Portal

  • View data for users outside their coaching assignments

  • Edit district or school-level settings

  • Manage other users' accounts

Best fit for: Classroom teachers, instructional coaches, specialists, and any staff member whose work is focused on their own professional practice rather than managing others.

Site Admin (Building-Level Access)

Site Admins have everything a Standard Teacher has, plus access to the Site Portal: the administrative dashboard for an individual school or site.

What Site Admins can do (beyond Standard Teacher):

  • Access the Site Portal for their assigned site

  • Edit profiles of all users within their site

  • View all observations, conferences, and goals for everyone in their site

  • Monitor staff progress and completion data at the building level

  • Manage site-level settings and rosters

What Site Admins cannot do:

  • Access the Network Portal

  • Edit profiles or view data across multiple sites

  • Manage network-wide settings or courses

  • Assign coach relationships across sites (unless cross-site permissions are configured)

Best fit for: Principals, assistant principals, building-level instructional coaches, and department heads who oversee staff within a single school.

⚠️ Important: If you have staff members who work across multiple sites (itinerant teachers, district-wide coaches), let your Proserva onboarding contact know so cross-site observation permissions can be configured properly.

Network Admin (District-Level Access)

Network Admins have the highest level of access. They can see and manage everything across the entire district (network) and all its sites.

What Network Admins can do (everything above, plus):

  • Access both the Network Portal and all Site Portals

  • Edit profiles for any user in the network

  • View all observations, conferences, and goals across the entire district

  • Manage coach assignments and pairing for all sites

  • Configure all network-level settings

  • Manage courses, rubrics, and standards shared across the district

  • Add and manage sites

What Network Admins cannot do:

  • There are no platform-level restrictions on Network Admins within their network. This is the highest role.

Best fit for: District-level administrators, curriculum directors, HR leads, data managers, and IT staff responsible for district-wide operations and reporting.

Role Hierarchy at a Glance

Capability

Standard Teacher

Site Admin

Network Admin

Professional Development & Courses

✅

✅

✅

License Applications & Renewals

✅

✅

✅

Observations & Conferences

✅

✅

✅

Goal Setting

✅

✅

✅

Edit Own Profile

✅

✅

✅

Access Site Portal

❌

✅

✅

Edit Profiles in Their Site

❌

✅

✅

View All Site Data

❌

✅

✅

Access Network Portal

❌

❌

✅

Edit Profiles Across All Sites

❌

❌

✅

Manage Coaches & Network Settings

❌

❌

✅

Upload & Manage District Data

❌

❌

✅

How Roles Are Assigned

Your Proserva onboarding team will handle the initial setup of your district, including assigning roles to all users during the data import process. After that, Network Admins in your district can update individual user roles through the District Portal as needed. If you need to add new staff members one at a time, your Network Admin can do that directly in the portal without needing to use CSV imports.

Common Role Scenarios

Here are some real-world examples of how districts typically assign roles:

Scenario 1: Small Elementary School

  • Principal: Site Admin

  • All teachers and specialists: Standard Teacher

  • District office staff who support this school: Network Admin

Scenario 2: Large District with Multiple Schools

  • Superintendent and district directors: Network Admin

  • Principal at each building: Site Admin

  • Assistant principals: Site Admin

  • Instructional coaches assigned to a single building: Site Admin or Standard Teacher (depending on whether they need to view all staff data)

  • All classroom teachers: Standard Teacher

Key Takeaways

  1. Start with the minimum role needed. It's easier to grant more access later than to restrict it. Most users only need Standard Teacher.

  2. Site Admin = one school. Network Admin = all schools. Choose based on scope of responsibility, not seniority.

  3. Coaches don't automatically need Site Admin. A Standard Teacher who is assigned as a coach can already access their coachees' profiles. Only make them a Site Admin if they need to see data for everyone in the building.

  4. Plan for cross-site staff early. If you have itinerant teachers, district-wide specialists, or coaches who float between buildings, identify them up front so permissions are configured correctly from day one.

  5. Roles control portals, not content. A Standard Teacher can still take advanced courses, earn licensure, and participate fully in professional development. The role only determines administrative access.

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