High-Impact Tip for Principals
How changing what we look for in classrooms can improve teacher skills and increase achievement.
Think about your last few classroom walkthroughs. Observations were made, feedback was provided. What was the response to the feedback?
During the next set of walks, was there drastic change or did you receive justification or rationalization in the places with the most need?
Maybe it is because you are observing the wrong thing for all the right reasons.
The value of a posted objective or academic rigor notwithstanding, the typically qualitative approach to observing these classroom structures and practices leaves teachers waiting to find out whether what they are doing is “good” or if they have “gotten dinged” for something happening in their classroom.
The left, offers an evaluative assessment of skill but provides little in the way of benchmarking performance or evidence of improvement. Teachers are also left frustrated as this feedback often differs from observer to observer.
The right, gives a clear benchmark of current performance. Future data points provide a clear indicator of improvement. Teachers can also self-monitor their own performance indicators and continue to focus on goals between observations.
