The Four Domains
Talent Development
Turnaround requires competent and committed personnel at every level and in every position. Policies and procedures to identify, select, place, retain, and sustain these personnel, especially teachers and school-level leaders, are a precursor to school turnaround, and staffing of teachers and leaders for turnaround schools should be approached with equity in mind.
Turnaround competencies are identified and used to select and develop turnaround teachers, model teachers, and leaders. At all levels, educators utilize and hone their instructional and transformational leadership to build capacity in those they supervise by continually balancing support with accountability.
Recruit, Develop, Retain, and Sustain Talent
Practice Description
- Proactively plan to recruit and develop talent with turnaround-specific competencies to quickly fill vacancies that inevitably occur during the turnaround process.
- Use multiple data sources to match candidate skills and competencies to school needs, prioritizing the highest need schools.
- Institute succession-planning activities. Create in-house district preparation programs designed to foster and generate turnaround competencies to develop future turnaround leaders and teachers.
School-Based Example
Collaborate with the district to develop a school-specific competency model for turnaround teachers to discern which competencies are prioritized in the teacher selection process for a specific school. Utilize the district turnaround talent pool as the go-to source for hiring assistant principals and teachers. Encourage aspiring leaders to participate in turnaround preparation programs.
Desired Future State
Induction programs are developed, actively used, and shown to improve student learning.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Design and implement a teacher induction/acculturation program for all teachers new to the school. This program provides teachers with information about school operations and norms.
- Create a site-level induction program that includes an orientation to site operations and that articulates the cultural and academic expectations of the school culture.
- Consider creating peer support in the form of buddy teachers or grade-level teams; define the expectations and frequency of check-ins between mentors and new staff.
- Have the administration follow up with new teachers a minimum of three times throughout the school year to ensure a consistent understanding of desired expectations and provide extra support if necessary.
- Increase the number of informal visits to classrooms and focus efforts on the quality of feedback provided to teachers.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Has a program for the induction of new teachers been developed? When and how is it used?
- Does the program result in improved student learning?
- What evidence-based instructional strategies do new teachers need to learn in their first year?
- Are the climate and culture at the school supportive and nurturing for new teachers?
- Are there instructional coaches committed and eager to support new teachers?
- Is there a high degree of professional collaboration among teachers focused on sharing and improving instructional practices?
Desired Future State
Prioritizing the hiring or training of instructional specialists is a high priority.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Write a clear description of the roles of an instructional specialist in supporting a cadre of highly qualified, highly effective teachers.
- Provide leadership training and coaching for all instructional specialists (e.g., reading coach, mathematics coach, reading specialist).
- Inspire instructional specialists with regular and timely feedback from their colleagues and administration and have their performance evaluated (using multiple measures) against their SMART goals.
- Provide consistent, high-quality feedback at the school leadership level, allowing valuable data to ensure a highly effective instructional program.
- If the capacity does not currently exist at the district level, encourage the district to consider investing in outside coaches to regularly support the work of instructional specialists.
- Allow district and site leadership to evaluate the current instructional coaching system to determine the coaches’ most efficient and effective use and make changes as appropriate.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How are specialists who provide guidance on instruction trained? Who is responsible for this training?
- What is the focus of their training?
- Does the training meet the instructional needs of the school and students?
- How do efforts to prioritize or hire instructional specialists take into account equitable access and inclusion for historically underrepresented groups?
Desired Future State
Teachers are assigned because their teaching skills match the needs of the students in the class or program.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Create a matrix of teacher skill sets and certifications prior to creating the school master schedule. Consult the matrix prior to assigning teachers to specific programs and/or classes.
- Provide opportunities for individual teachers to share their perceived skill set.
- Establish a system to support the appropriate connection between teacher skill set, student need, and program or class.
- Clearly articulate to teachers which skill set determines they are the best fit for a particular program or This step could support the expectation that a teacher will use a particular skill set to meet the needs of students.
- Create opportunities to build capacity in various teaching skills that will support the needs of your students in a specific program or class.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How do you determine student learning needs? Are student needs officially recorded in a document that can be accessed by those who create student schedules?
- How do you determine teacher skill sets?
- What are the prerequisite skills needed for teachers to be successful in teaching specific programs and/or classes?
- Who is accountable for ensuring that teacher skills match the needs of the students in the class or program?
- What opportunities do you provide for teachers to expand their skill set for a specific class or program?
Desired Future State
School leaders work with teachers, parents, and community members to develop a shared definition of “good teaching” and review data to identify school needs before teacher candidates go through a rigorous process to be hired.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Direct school and district officials to attract, select, and retain highly committed educators and staff who fit well with the mission and vision of the school.
- Encourage interested parties at the school to create selection criteria matching the school’s mission, vision, and identified needs of the grade level in which a new hire works.
- Instruct district officials to have candidates teach demonstration lessons for hiring committees to make thoughtful decisions about the people they want to join their team.
- Invite school leaders to share the criteria considered by the hiring team with the school community and communicate how the successful candidate or candidates demonstrated the standards in practice and through their experience.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Does the school leader work with all interested parties to develop a shared understanding of “good teaching”?
- How is “good teaching” defined?
- What are the school’s instructional needs related to hiring new teaching staff?
- How is the team creating a consensus and understanding of teacher placements and assignments? What is used to match school needs with teacher and leader competencies?
Desired Future State
Teacher-leaders are selected and developed based on the school’s primary needs and the teachers’ fit to support school initiatives.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Consider multiple factors when selecting teacher-leaders, including instructional skills, curriculum knowledge, understanding of the school’s mission, willingness to learn, and the ability to positively influence staff development.
- Outline and share the responsibilities of teacher-leaders regarding school-based initiatives.
- Provide leadership training and coaching for all teacher-leaders (e.g., grade-level leads, department chairs, assistant principals, counselors).
- Schedule regular meetings with team leaders to discuss vertical alignment with curriculum, professional learning, schoolwide goals, and upcoming initiatives.
- Train teacher leadership teams in group protocols that use “problems of practice” during leadership and professional learning community (PLC) or grade-level team meetings.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What are the school’s primary needs related to teacher-leaders?
- Are teacher-leaders aware of school-based initiatives? How is this awareness made visible to interested parties?
- What are teacher-leaders’ responsibilities regarding supporting and advancing those initiatives?
- How do teacher-leaders engage with constituencies to share progress toward the initiatives and to make adjustments? How do the initiatives affect the actions of staff members and have the desired impacts on students?
- How are skills and aptitudes needed for teacher-leaders identified if the school is currently not using competencies? What resources are available?
Desired Future State
Retaining teachers and support staff is extremely important to school leaders.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Ensure that work conditions sufficiently meet the staff’s needs so they can deliver quality instruction and receive Important working conditions for teachers include appropriate work assignments, sufficient curriculum guidelines, efficient discipline systems, opportunities for reflection, and the ability to share ideas and resources with colleagues.
- Provide instructional leadership and foster collegiality and collaborative relationships that cultivate a positive school climate in which teachers are valued and feel supported in their work.
- Welcome new teachers and help them build their teaching skills through reflection and continued emphasis on improving their teaching practices.
- Design mentoring programs to enable new and veteran teachers to foster discussion about effective teaching practices, including sharing ideas among colleagues in a collaborative setting and learning from other teachers.
- Use data to highlight ways in which teachers’ instructional work has positive effects on academic achievement.
- Provide frequent and consistent feedback to teachers and staff on areas of strength as well as on areas of potential improvement to support positive morale and school climate, which consequently strengthens teacher retention and productivity.
- Provide opportunities for growth through professional learning and leadership opportunities.
- Create opportunities for support staff to collaborate with teachers and for teachers and support staff to discuss alignment in resources, ideas, and tools.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How have leaders prioritized retaining teachers and staff?
- Which data are collected on staff retention? Have these data been analyzed? What are the reasons that teachers and support staff are choosing to apply and work at your school?
- What are the reasons that staff are deciding to leave? Is there a system to collect data on this issue? Is there a plan to reengage staff?
- How important is staff satisfaction? How are data collected on this topic?
- How often are staff included in decision-making processes for the school?
Target Professional Learning Opportunities
Practice Description
- Offer high-quality, individualized, and responsive professional learning opportunities designed to build the capacity needed for rapid school improvement.
- Offer regular opportunities for job-embedded learning, including coaching, mentoring, and observation (including peer observations).
- Leverage and maximize the effectiveness of high-performing teachers, coaches, and leaders by using them as models and peer coaches.
School-Based Example
Create a cadre of instructional leaders (drawing from assistant principals, department coordinators, team leaders, and teachers with demonstrated instructional coaching capacity) who each respond to the professional learning needs of a manageable portion of the faculty, using data to identify those needs. Provide opportunities for leaders and teachers to learn side by side and share how ongoing growth impacts individual practice as instructional and organizational leaders. Ensure that learning experiences are differentiated, purposeful, targeted, employed in rapid response to identified needs, reflective of what is known about effective adult learning, and clearly connected to the school’s turnaround priorities.
Desired Future State
School-based professional learning enables teachers to reflect on and make significant improvements to their teaching practices.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Utilize regular reviews of the school improvement plan to adapt and adjust to individual professional learning needs.
- Develop an “implementation check” schedule for each identified essential Is the work being done? Is the strategy implemented with fidelity? If not, what actions will lead to full implementation? Is additional support needed?
- Provide opportunities for leaders and teachers to learn side by side and share how ongoing growth impacts their individual practice as instructional leaders.
- Design professional learning opportunities to create relational trust by building new knowledge and skills among all teachers in the school.
- Build cycles of reflection, design, implementation, feedback, and practice into the everyday culture of the school.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Are opportunities for teacher reflection embedded into professional development?
- What are the expectations for changes in teachers’ practices?
- Is there an expectation for teachers to participate in professional learning?
- Are data and evidence used for ongoing professional development?
- Are experienced teachers interested in and capable of leading professional learning?
Desired Future State
Professional development plans are created, actively used, and shown to improve student learning.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Develop ongoing coaching for teachers to assist them with instructional strategies and ensure they receive regular feedback on their practice.
- Prioritize observations based on teacher needs and student achievement goals.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Do formal plans exist for professional development for individual teachers?
- Are improvements in student learning monitored as part of these plans?
- Is there a supportive instructional leader available to individual teachers? What is the system for this support?
- What evidence-based instructional model is in place at the school? How do individual teachers receive coaching and support for the model?
- To what extent is the instructional staff committed and eager to continuously improve their instruction to foster student outcomes?
Desired Future State
Schoolwide professional development activities are differentiated to address the various learning needs of teachers and are delivered using the expertise of teachers.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Ensure that school leaders, in collaboration with staff members, develop plans for ongoing, formative support for all school employees. Include ongoing coaching and capacity-building opportunities to assist teachers with instructional strategies. Ensure teachers receive regular feedback about their practice.
- Ensure that school leaders prioritize observations based on teacher needs and student achievement goals.
- Ensure that school leaders measure and monitor the implementation of priority initiatives for levels of use and develop a system of support for groups of teachers.
- Provide site leaders with training on effective professional learning practices, including systems of ongoing coaching with regular feedback that supports implementation.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What are the professional learning needs of turnaround leadership and staff? What steps need to be taken to fulfill those needs?
- How are professional learning activities differentiated?
- Do the professional learning activities address the various learning needs of teachers?
- Is professional learning delivered using the expertise of teachers? How is teacher expertise encouraged and incorporated into professional learning activities?
- Who is responsible for providing and leading the professional learning opportunities and experiences for turnaround leadership and staff? How are leaders ensuring that professional learning is rapid, responsive, and customized?
Desired Future State
School leaders encourage teachers to try new practices in their classrooms; the leaders also assign responsibility and provide resources for teachers and staff to help shape the teaching practices of others.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Develop a system to share knowledge gained and next steps with the whole staff after training.
- Provide mentors to support the instructional needs of new teachers.
- Advise teachers who have expertise in using particular instructional strategies to take leadership roles in staff development and teacher-to-teacher support.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How are high-performing teachers leveraged to expand their positive influence outside their classrooms?
- How are teachers and staff encouraged to try new practices in their classrooms?
- How are responsibilities assigned to teachers to help shape the teaching practices of others?
- Is there a high degree of professional collaboration among teachers focused on sharing and improving instructional practices?
Desired Future State
Principals regularly attend activities as active and productive participants to be in a position to provide feedback on high-priority strategies.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Ensure that the principal becomes a learning leader in the school by actively participating in schoolwide professional learning activities.
- Be present in instructional leadership activities by letting others know that this work is a priority requiring uninterrupted focus.
- Organize an administrative presence in every teacher’s classroom and work individually with teachers to strengthen their teaching practice.
- Model the importance of strengthening the practice of all teachers, not just those who are chronic underperformers.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Do school leaders actively participate in schoolwide professional development as productive participants?
- What does this productive participation look like?
- How do school leaders ensure they are not overactive participants?
- How invested are school leaders in the professional learning needs of fellow teachers?
- How are you ensuring professional learning has an impact on student outcomes?
- How are teachers moved from novice to highly effective levels of instructional delivery?
Desired Future State
Teachers experience regular peer observations with feedback, and the feedback enhances high-priority instructional strategies.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Consider providing an observation protocol for teachers to use when observing one another.
- Consider providing classroom coverage for teachers to observe one another or encourage the use of videos so that coverage is not an issue.
- Provide opportunities and time for teachers to debrief, discuss, and offer feedback after observations.
- Consider connecting observations, teaching rubrics, schoolwide goals, professional learning focus, and so on.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Do teachers have opportunities to participate in peer observation?
- What is the school’s structure for peer observation?
- Has the school developed a vision and purpose around peer observation?
- How is the impact of peer observation monitored and measured?
- Is feedback collected from teachers regarding the impact of peer observation?
- How do school leaders create a culture in which teachers may confront the most challenging aspects of their work when seeking advice and guidance from peers?
Desired Future State
Teachers experience regular walk-throughs with feedback, and the feedback enhances high-priority instructional strategies.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Develop a classroom walk-through schedule for the principal and assistant principal so teachers have a common understanding of when walk-throughs take place and how long visits last on average.
- Consider having face-to-face debriefs with teachers as a result of data collected in walk-throughs to provide them with high-quality instructional coaching support.
- Provide the administration with training on tools and skills that facilitate meaningful feedback to teachers to increase quality instructional feedback schoolwide.
- Spend time in the classroom or virtual classroom with teachers and students to observe and provide relevant and timely feedback.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Do teachers have the opportunity to receive formative feedback through the walk-through process?
- Has the school developed a vision and purpose for the use of walk-through observations as formative feedback?
- How is the impact of walk-through observations monitored and measured?
- Is feedback collected from teachers regarding the impact of observations?
- How are school leaders creating a culture in which teachers may confront the most challenging aspects of their work when seeking advice and guidance from administrators?
- Is feedback immediate or delayed? If delayed, how long does it take?
- How does the information teachers receive help them grow and learn?
- How involved is the teacher in the feedback process?
Desired Future State
Instructional coaching programs are developed, actively used, and shown to improve student learning.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Use flexibility in budgeting processes to allocate resources to one or more instructional coaches.
- If there are insufficient resources, seek funding opportunities from the district, the community, or grant sources to fund instructional coaching positions.
- Select coaches with strong instructional skills and expertise in the content area they are coaching to work with and teach adult learners.
- Hold coaches accountable for working strategically to improve instructional practice in the school and for dedicating a significant portion of their time to working with teachers in
- Support all teachers in shifting their planning and pedagogy to fully adapt to the state standards through planning, assessment, and instructional execution.
- Provide regular coaching and individual support to all teachers while implementing district and school expectations.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Is there a formal plan for instructional coaching to improve student learning?
- How is instructional coaching developed and used to improve student learning in your school?
- To what extent is the instructional coaching monitored for improvement outcomes and instructional effectiveness of teachers?
- What systems are in place to support effective instructional coaching? Are coaching observations and feedback taking place for the instructional coach?
- To what extent are side-by-side coaching, modeling, planning sessions, classroom observations, and other coaching models taking place?
Desired Future State
School leaders work with school staff to determine the professional development needs by looking at data on student learning and evidence from classroom observations and subsequent conversations.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Form a professional learning committee to create, monitor, and adjust a yearlong professional learning calendar that targets the specific needs of the The calendar should define the roles and expected outcomes of all district, contracted, and site-based support services and should include specific procedures for communicating feedback to all providers.
- Prioritize staff development needs on the basis of teacher feedback, student data, and administrative observations and analyses.
- Establish a professional development plan that focuses on student achievement or acceleration, new learning for staff, consistent schoolwide implementation, and a collaborative system for teachers to plan instruction.
- Design a system for eliciting teacher feedback about professional development opportunities to determine whether current opportunities are effective or further professional development is required.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How are professional development needs determined and by whom? Have school leaders worked with school staff to determine those needs?
- To what extent are student data and observation data used in selecting professional learning support?
- After professional learning is completed, how often are new strategies implemented and monitored? Who is responsible for implementation and monitoring?
- How are professional learning opportunities differentiated for classroom teachers?
- To what extent is professional learning tiered to support individual teachers’ learning needs?
- What impacts has professional learning had? Which data are used to determine the need for professional learning, and to what extent are the data revisited?
- How often do teachers have opportunities to engage in reflection and refinement of practice?
Desired Future State
Professional learning opportunities include, but are not limited to, schoolwide professional development activities, instructional coaching sessions, and formal and informal conversations with school leaders, and these opportunities emphasize delivering content that has connections to students’ own experiences.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Provide professional learning that focuses on what students are experiencing through the learning environment and through the teacher’s instruction.
- Provide professional learning that embraces the advantages of each student’s culture and its richness and helps students connect ideas. Shifting to this focus may require an intentional reorientation to the craft of teaching.
- Ensure that teachers have collaborative time to discuss and create specific strategies that motivate and encourage interest and engagement.
- Have teachers provide both context and relevance to subject content to support students in making connections to what they are learning.
- Provide professional learning that builds on students’ prior knowledge and that includes various ways of assessing knowing as an instructional
- Ensure that teachers have time to give authentic and meaningful feedback to each student.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How have students’ learning needs been factored into decisions on professional learning?
- To what extent are teachers able to connect content and relevance for students?
- How motivated are students to engage in all areas of the content?
Desired Future State
Professional learning opportunities—including, but not limited to, schoolwide professional development activities, instructional coaching sessions, and formal and informal conversations with school leaders—emphasize viewing students’ cultures and community identities as assets.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Promote teachers’ use of effective instructional techniques that support connections to students’ prior experiences. Effective instruction for any student requires that the teacher respect and leverage the students’ social and cultural backgrounds.
- Provide professional learning that examines the advantages of each student’s social construct and cultural identity and helps them connect This shift may require an intentional reorientation of the craft of teaching.
- Provide training and support for all staff to understand their own and their students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds; avoid stereotyping of students based on assumptions about their family and cultural backgrounds; encourage a growth mindset that promotes academic growth and success for all students through effort, self-regulation, and persistence to mastery; and help integrate cultural and linguistic material into the curriculum.
- Provide professional learning that builds on students’ prior knowledge as an instructional strategy.
- Provide professional learning focused on collaboration between schools and communities to improve family engagement and connection between home and school cultures.
- Create opportunities for staff, students, and families to connect; provide all staff with opportunities to view students’ cultures as sources of valuable skills, attitudes, and experiences.
- Encourage a school climate in which teachers intentionally foster a sense of community among students in the classroom and with their families.
- Provide professional learning on how culturally responsive educators can learn about, value, and center students’ identities by supporting students’ cultural pride, linguistic structures, cultural nuances, and discourse features.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What practices are in place to ensure that student diversity and culture are viewed as positive assets by the school community?
- Has viewing students’ cultures and communities as assets been included in professional learning sessions with teachers? How has this focus been demonstrated?
- How are students’ cultures and communities included in curriculum, instruction, and school environment?
- What connections has the school made to link instruction and practices to students’ cultures?
- How has the school worked to build a robust instructional network for students and families?
Set Clear Performance Expectations
Practice Description
- Create and share expectations for a level of professional performance in every role in the system.
- Develop and implement performance-management processes that include clear means for monitoring progress, the flexibility to rapidly respond to professional learning needs, and opportunities to revise milestones as needed.
School-Based Example
Define expectations for teachers, clearly and realistically considering how to effectively leverage teacher time and effort. Develop daily and weekly schedules that reflect this priority of effective use of teacher time. When asking more of a teacher, consider removing another responsibility.
Desired Future State
Holding teachers and others accountable for achieving high levels of teaching and learning is extremely important to school leaders.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Clearly articulate the most critical teacher actions in the Continue to communi- cate their importance throughout the school year through multiple methods.
- Work with staff to identify teacher actions leading to and focusing on improvement in student outcomes.
- Clearly articulate how classroom walk-throughs are scheduled and which teacher actions are the focus of walk-through observations.
- After classroom walk-throughs, provide feedback that is aligned with the prioritized teacher practices.
- Clearly articulate the implementation actions required of adults and schedule implementation checks. Remember, for each strategy, there are two levels of accountability: Was the strategy implemented with fidelity and intentionality, and did the strategy lead to improvement in student outcomes?
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Who is accountable for setting clear performance expectations for staff? How do they determine those expectations? How is staff assessed or held accountable for achieving those performance expectations?
- What tools, systems, and structures need to be established for leaders to maintain a balance of support with accountability at all levels? Do the tools, systems, and structures need to vary depending on the level (state, district, or school)?
Desired Future State
School leaders schedule time to discuss student achievement data at least monthly.
Note: For relevant strategies and suggestions and reflection questions, see 2.3.24 below.
Desired Future State
School leaders schedule time for teachers to discuss student work at least monthly.
Note: For relevant strategies and suggestions and reflection questions, see 2.3.24 below.
Desired Future State
School leaders schedule time to discuss strategies for instruction at least monthly.
Note: For relevant strategies and suggestions and reflection questions, see 2.3.24 below.
Desired Future State
School leaders schedule time to discuss formative assessment of students at least monthly.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Give teachers regular opportunities to work with their peers in reviewing student work and discussing its implications for instructional design, academic rigor, and learner outcomes.
- Facilitate discussions regarding the number of students improving their performance levels and those not improving. Use interventions as short-term rather than long- term strategies.
- Examine lesson plans and provide teachers with feedback on the quality of their planning.
- Build professional relationships with the teachers based on knowledge of the standards, curriculum, assessment, and instructional systems.
- As leaders, attend or lead all professional learning sessions to become the principal learners in the school.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How much time is spent with grade-level teams to discuss student learning and strategies for instruction?
- How much time is spent with grade-level teams to review formative and summative data and student work?
- How is the purpose of these meetings communicated?
- What are the expected outcomes from the meetings?
- Is the time spent sufficient to reach the intended outcomes?
- Are grade-level teams maximizing the amount of time for these discussions? If not, what support needs to be provided to ensure that these discussions result in better outcomes for students?
Desired Future State
Formative feedback is provided to teachers. It includes specific, critical examples from teaching practices and provides meaningful suggestions on how to improve.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Build a shared definition of effective teaching practice as a reference for ongoing conversations about improving teaching and learning.
- Establish regular opportunities for teachers to receive feedback on their teaching practices.
- Structure opportunities for ongoing conversations among teachers to continually define and redefine effective practice, review student work, and participate in peer observation and feedback.
- Connect resources and support to concrete feedback, enabling teachers to act on feedback to improve teaching practice.
- Examine school leader role expectations and assign formal responsibility for formative evaluation and feedback.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What percentage of the leader’s time is spent on teaching and learning activities in a given school day? What system helps protect this time?
- How often do visits to each classroom occur?
- How often do teachers receive formative feedback?
- Is there time regularly scheduled for talking with teachers about classroom practice?
- What types of support do teachers receive to improve student learning?
- Is the feedback that is given to teachers specific, and does it include examples of how to improve?
Desired Future State
Formative feedback is provided to teachers. It includes meaningful suggestions on how to improve and specific, critical examples from teaching practices.
Strategies and Suggestions
Formative feedback given to teachers helps to inform and improve practice and creates opportunities that allow teachers to reflect.
Instructional coaching
- Design training to build the capacity of the school by providing personalized support.
- Have instructional coaches model effective practices and conversations about student work and learning data.
Walk-throughs
- Target visits to multiple classrooms to get a sense of current teaching practices.
- Focus on prioritized aspects of the instructional process and take notice of the degree to which the intended practice is visible in the classroom.
Peer observation visits and instructional rounds
- Focus on providing feedback and building a culture of inquiry around particular improvement goals.
- Organize visits to collect data on how goals are addressed from shared problems of practice.
- Keep the focus on specific topics for instructional rounds that support schoolwide practices.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Is the work of the instructional coach focused and clearly defined?
- Is the majority of the coach’s time spent on formative feedback and continuous improvement for teachers?
- Are walk-throughs used to make ongoing connections to conversations and goals around school improvement?
- Are peer visits used to support the work of schoolwide practices that allow for further discourse?
- Are resources and means available to support teachers’ practices and individual improvement?
Desired Future State
Almost all teachers in the school believe that the formal evaluation process for teachers significantly improves teaching practices.
Note: For relevant strategies and suggestions and reflection questions, see 2.3.53 below.
Desired Future State
Teachers report that meeting with school leaders to talk about goals for the evaluation process significantly improves their teaching.
Note: For relevant strategies and suggestions and reflection questions, see 2.3.53 below.
Desired Future State
Teachers report that meeting with school leaders to talk about teaching after a visit to their classroom or work site significantly improves their teaching.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Engage in leadership work to create a learning community that includes formal evaluations as part of a comprehensive system for improving the capacity of schools to act on information that improves teaching and learning.
- Use formal teacher observation data to set goals for both individual and schoolwide teacher practices.
- Invest time for leaders to review the collective impact of all formal teacher evaluations to determine which teacher practices need the most improvement. These data may inform ongoing professional learning needs for the staff and targeted professional learning for groups of teachers. The feedback may allow educators to connect the impact with student outcomes.
- Build teacher evaluation processes that use formal teacher observations (or similar) to emphasize school improvement priorities.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How is the impact of formal observations measured? Has it been measured to show improvements in teaching?
- To what extent does the school leadership believe in formal evaluations affecting and improving teaching? What evidence supports this impact? What resulting actions are taking place?
- What messaging is shared with teachers about the purpose and potential of the process?
- How are formal evaluations used in conjunction with informal observations to improve teacher practices? Describe this process.
Recruit, Develop, Retain, and Sustain Talent
Practice Description
- Plan for recruiting and developing talent with turnaround-specific competencies to quickly fill the vacancies that will inevitably occur during the turnaround process.
- Use multiple sources of data to match candidate skills and competencies to a school’s needs, prioritizing the highest need schools.
- Institute succession planning activities by creating in-house district preparation programs designed to foster and generate turnaround competencies to develop future turnaround leaders and teachers.
LEA Example
The LEA designs a model for selecting and placing teachers and leaders with turnaround competencies, prioritizing turnaround schools’ access to top candidates. LEA leaders challenge and support human resources to create programs that identify and develop potential turnaround leaders and teachers. Multiple measures and data sources, such as extended candidate observations in various settings, are used to assess readiness and potential.
Desired Future State
District leaders almost always recognize principals who take risks for innovation.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Encourage a culture of innovation by publicly celebrating and rewarding innovative practices.
- Establish opportunities that allow principals to test new strategies with district support.
- Create forums for principals to share innovative practices, discuss challenges, and receive peer and district feedback.
- Allow principals to design school improvement strategies that align with broader district goals while permitting creative solutions.
- Highlight case studies of successful innovations led by principals.
- Facilitate workshops for principals to analyze and reflect on their innovations.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How are district leaders actively recognizing and supporting innovation among principals?
- How are innovative efforts evaluated and communicated to ensure alignment with district goals?
- What resources or structures are needed to enable more frequent and impactful principal-led innovation?
- How do district leaders ensure that principals are supported when innovations do not yield immediate success?
Desired Future State
The development of teacher leadership is based on schoolwide needs and a formal district strategy for school improvement.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Conduct comprehensive needs assessments at both the school and district levels to identify priorities and ensure teacher leadership development aligns with overarching district goals for school improvement.
- Develop a districtwide framework for teacher leadership roles that specifies expectations, responsibilities, and pathways for professional growth in alignment with district improvement strategies.
- Provide district-led professional development sessions focused on building leadership competencies, including data analysis, instructional coaching, and collaborative problem-solving.
- Facilitate regular district- and school-level forums in which teacher leaders share strategies, successes, and challenges, fostering a collaborative improvement culture.
- Establish district-supported coaching and mentorship programs to guide teacher leaders in implementing evidence-based practices that address schoolwide improvement needs.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How does the district ensure that its strategy for teacher leadership development aligns with school improvement goals?
- What resources does the district provide to support teacher leaders in their roles?
- How does the district facilitate communication and collaboration between school leaders and teacher leaders?
- What processes are in place for the district to evaluate and adjust its teacher leadership development strategy?
- How does the district ensure that teacher leaders are empowered to make meaningful contributions to instructional transformation and student success?
Desired Future State
Most administrators agree on a shared definition of good teaching and consistently use it to inform recruitment and selection of new teachers.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Leverage the vision for student learning to guide administrators during the recruitment and selection of new teachers.
- Direct school and district leaders to attract, select, and retain teachers and staff who demonstrate a deep interest in and capacity to serve the mission and vision of the district and school.
- Convene stakeholders to develop or refine comprehensive teacher and principal evaluation models and use them to support recruitment efforts.
- Create a professional learning and coaching model to ensure new faculty and staff know and understand professional expectations and cultural needs.
- Conduct routine site visits hosted by school leaders, with classroom observations to align instructional practices with district goals.
- Create structures for district personnel to meet quarterly with stakeholders to review strengths and identify areas for improvement within the system.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Does the principal work with teachers and families to develop a shared understanding of high-quality teaching?
- How is good teaching defined?
- What are ways administrators use the common definition and understanding of high-quality teaching as recruitment and selection talking points?
- Are regular meetings held for teams screening or interviewing applicants to ensure alignment among team members and readiness to select diverse, skilled candidates committed to student success?
Desired Future State
District leaders work with multiconstituent teams to review data and identify school needs before principal candidates go through a rigorous hiring process. There is a basic district protocol for hiring to ensure that practices that promote appropriate assessment of candidates are consistently used, with flexibility to enhance the protocol to meet individual school needs.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Create a team of teachers, specialists, support staff, and school leaders at every school who review school data to determine school needs before the hiring process begins.
- Incorporate knowledge of school needs during interviews and selection to ensure appropriate candidate assessment.
- Provide teams with opportunities to craft targeted questions and gather evidence of candidates’ relevant skills and expertise.
- Develop scenarios based on school needs to assess candidates’ leadership skills.
- Apply an assets-based approach to evaluate candidates’ abilities to address identified needs effectively.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Are teams that include educators, school leaders, parents, and community members trained in data analysis to identify gaps that might indicate needs that can be addressed by filling specific vacancies?
- Are there diverse protocols for screening and interviewing applicants? Have relevant teams been trained in these protocols?
- How are scenarios used during the interview process to give applicants an opportunity to exhibit problem-solving skills?
Desired Future State
District leaders, as part of their supervision and evaluation of school leaders, ensure that teachers with a record of poor performance are identified and supported to become successful before they are recommended for dismissal from the district.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Create or enhance a process for principal evaluation by engaging principals and a diverse team of stakeholders in defining key leadership attributes.
- Periodically meet with each principal to understand their concerns about teachers who may need to improve their practice. Find out what types of support the teachers have been offered.
- Eliminate barriers to efficient human resources operations and promote effective performance management conversations based on the defined evaluation process.
- Use an assets-based approach when considering teaching performance to consider whether a different placement or role in the school might capitalize on the teacher’s strengths and support them to be successful in facilitating high student achievement.
- Establish professional learning communities (PLCs) for principals to enhance supervision and accountability practices aligned with performance standards.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Are there district protocols for supporting teachers, other educators, or school leaders to improve performance?
- Does the evaluation of teachers, other educators, or school leaders include an evidence-based framework?
- Do teachers, other educators, support staff, and school leaders understand the performance standards for their roles? Are they provided with professional learning about meeting the standards?
- Are teachers, other educators, support staff, and school leaders provided time with a coach to identify areas to work on and models of proficiency; does the coach have planning and reflection conferences with them based on agreed-upon observations of their practice?
- Are school leaders prepared for how to deal with possible reactions from some colleagues if a teacher, other educator, support staff, or school leader is not recommended for rehire?
Desired Future State
School and district leadership succession plans are developed, actively used, and proven to be effective in preparing and guiding skillful school and district leaders to successfully fulfill leadership roles and provide continuity of the district and school missions.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Require district leaders and principals to develop formal succession plans that prepare aspiring and experienced educators to assume specific leadership roles in their schools and district.
- Conduct a comprehensive leadership assessment by systematically identifying critical skills, traits, and organizational needs while strategically mapping current leadership strengths to future requirements.
- Create peer support programs for role-alike positions across the district, create special groups for one-of-a-kind positions, and provide professional learning experiences to advance understanding and implementation of evidence-based practices for transformational leadership.
- Create professional learning communities (PLCs) for identified leaders and educators who are committed to school transformation.
- Plan professional learning about change theory and how to understand and address the needs of school personnel who are not yet committed to school transformation.
- Provide opportunities for shadowing and coaching and provide additional leadership roles in the district to promote skills development and goal setting.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What will the succession plan’s structure be? Who will develop the plan and how? Will its development be a collaborative effort involving many people or just a few trusted colleagues?
- How will teachers, other educators, coaches, and leaders have information about and be considered for possible inclusion in the succession planning?
- Will there be leadership training and coaching for all teacher leaders that include group protocols for “problems of practice” and discussions in PLCs or other collaborative groups?
(See 2.1.60)
Target Professional Learning Opportunities
Practice Description
- Offer high-quality, individualized, and responsive professional learning opportunities designed to build the capacity needed for rapid school improvement.
- Offer regular opportunities for job-embedded learning, including coaching, mentoring, and observation/peer observation.
- Leverage and maximize the effectiveness of high-performing teachers, coaches, and leaders by using them as models and peer coaches.
LEA Example
The LEA creates timelines and other accountability systems that remind principals to regularly examine teacher performance and to rapidly adjust professional learning plans based on identified needs. LEA leaders provide district staff with job-embedded professional learning and opportunities to learn side by side with school leaders. District-offered professional learning experiences are differentiated, purposeful, targeted, and reflective of what is known about successful adult learning and the turnaround endeavor.
Desired Future State
Formal district and school plans for differentiated professional development opportunities are developed by school leaders and other educators, are actively used, and improve student learning.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Create inclusive district and school professional development committees to survey colleagues and make recommendations for professional development priorities.
- Provide direct, targeted professional learning and resources about formative assessment.
- Design professional learning opportunities to build relational trust by building new knowledge and skills among all educators in the district and schools.
- Create opportunities for leaders and teachers to learn side by side and share how ongoing growth impacts their individual practice as instructional leaders.
- Model high-quality professional learning opportunities that are responsive to principals’ and other school leaders’ needs about how to lead high-level change and sustain improvement.
- Schedule time to observe teachers to assess the successful implementation of professional learning, ensuring it results in improved student achievement for all students.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Do district and school professional learning communities (PLCs) solicit input from colleagues about their learning needs and make recommendations for priorities for the upcoming year? How are student and school data used to determine priorities for the upcoming year?
- What professional development and training are currently provided to principals and school leaders to implement or enhance PLCs or other collaborative learning structures such as grade-level teams or subject area departments?
- How does the district ensure that principals understand and implement the districtwide PLC framework consistently across schools?
- In what ways does the district offer coaching or mentorship to principals, other school leaders, and instructional and support personnel to support their ongoing development and goals for improving student achievement?
- How do PLCs and other collaborative learning structures collaborate across schools in the district, and what strategies are in place to encourage cross-school learning and sharing of best practices?
- What data are used to assess the overall effectiveness of PLCs and other collaborative structures at the district and school levels, and are there correlations between these collaborative professional learning groups and improved student achievement?
Desired Future State
The district works with school staff and leadership to determine teachers’ needs for professional development by looking at data on student learning and considering information from teacher evaluations or classroom walk-throughs.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Provide professional learning for school staff and leadership on how to analyze student achievement data and determine gaps.
- Make goals to address possible causes of the gaps between different student groups.
- Identify what professional learning is needed for educators and school leaders to better be able to analyze student data and address the goals.
- Establish a process for monitoring progress on the goals and ensuring that the goals are responsive to student needs.
- Use walk-throughs, achievement data, professional learning community (PLC) anecdotal data, and other data points to monitor the implementation of the goals and to determine professional learning needs.
- Collaborate with educational associations/unions to identify ways to use available time for structured professional learning on evidence-based practices to increase student learning and achievement. Identify ways to structure school days and calendars for the benefit of students and staff.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What data teams currently exist within the district and schools? What is their effectiveness?
- Do educators and leaders regularly write goals? If so, have many goals been successfully implemented, or do some educators and leaders need professional learning or coaching to build their capacity to use goals?
- Is there a districtwide protocol for school walk-throughs? If so, is there alignment throughout the district?
- Is there a history of the teachers’ association collaborating on the number and use of days in the contract for teacher and leader professional learning experiences?
- Would teacher work days (when students are not in school) support increased teacher engagement in professional learning?
- Has there been clear and consistent communication about the correlation between enhancement of staff capacity and impacts on student achievement?
Desired Future State
Coaching programs for teachers are developed, actively used, and shown to improve student learning.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Develop districtwide plans for having school-based coaches and instructional specialists.
- Establish criteria and an application process for these roles, including ways for applicants to provide evidence of their skills and disposition to meet role expectations.
- Clarify that coaches are not evaluators: They are guides in promoting educators’ capacity to impact students’ learning and academic achievement.
- Introduce or reinforce to all educators information about the responsibilities of coaches and instructional specialists.
- Align professional learning with district and school priorities based on student achievement data. Use and compensate skilled internal staff to deliver training, supplementing with external experts as needed.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How are potential coaches and instructional specialists recruited, interviewed, and selected? How are they trained and retained?
- How are the roles and responsibilities of coaches and instructional specialists conveyed to staff? How are they assured that interactions are confidential and nonevaluative?
- What are ways to measure the impact of coaches and instructional specialists on educators? How could the impact of their work be correlated with student achievement?
- What barriers get in the way of teachers working with instructional specialists, and how are these barriers addressed?
- What systems or structures exist for coaches to collaborate across content areas, buildings, and so on?
Desired Future State
District leaders encourage principals to engage in professional development, and leaders work with the principals to provide opportunities that are tailored to individual principals and others that are designed for groups.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Invite principals individually, in groups, and anonymously to identify and share their professional learning needs. Use input to select differentiated and relevant district offerings.
- Require each principal to engage in growth mindset professional learning with multiple tailored opportunities to improve their practice.
- Promote principals’ self-reflection in a variety of ways and settings, including at group meetings and in observation cycles that are done as part of their evaluation.
- Engage with principals about how they can measure their leadership effectiveness in increasing students’ academic achievement.
- Collect evidence from principals that exhibits participation in professional learning and coaching opportunities to improve or enrich their leadership performance.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What structures establish a safe environment for groups of principals to discuss their professional learning and coaching needs?
- Are there coaches specifically for principals? If so, what are the required credentials to apply for such positions, and how is the effectiveness of these coaches measured?
- How could principals demonstrate their growth mindset and the results of their participation in professional learning and coaching?
- What are ways to include reflection about data on student achievement as part of a continuous cycle of supervision and evaluation of principals?
Desired Future State
District leadership greatly prioritizes principal leadership development.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Demonstrate that principal leadership development is a top priority by devoting significant time to addressing it in multiple ways.
- Solicit input from principals on how district leaders could demonstrate their commitment to principals’ leadership.
- Demonstrate commitment to principal leadership development during supervision and evaluation, school walk-throughs, and examination of student wellness and achievement data.
- Use a growth mindset for each principal, and tailor their supervision and evaluation accordingly.
- Schedule meetings with principals to discuss ways in which the district is working on its goals and to solicit feedback and ideas.
- Celebrate principals’ successes and risk-taking.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What is the process for determining professional learning experiences for principals?
- How are principals encouraged to share different points of view?
- What are structures to promote discussion about leadership among principals and district leaders?
- Are principals celebrated for trying something even when they did not have confidence in being successful?
- How is the impact of professional learning for principals measured?
Desired Future State
Coaching programs for principals are developed, are actively used, and improve leadership practice.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Build principals’ skills through coaching.
- Provide regular high-quality, job-embedded coaching to assist principals in thinking through their problems of practice and using evidence-based practices to address them.
- Ensure that principals have access to data as needed.
- Build the capacity of principals and school leadership teams to conduct effective one-on-one conversations with teachers to drive evidence-based instruction.
- Deepen principals’ ability to delineate and anticipate their budget needs based on school goals for student achievement.
- Build leadership capacity to engage families and the community in the success of every student.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What is the role of principal coach, and how are individuals chosen for this role?
- Are there coaches for principals who work with them individually in a confidential and nonevaluative way?
- How are topics for coaching determined? Are principals encouraged to bring topics to their coaches that were part of their evaluation?
- How is the impact of coaching on principals’ leadership practices measured?
- Is there evidence that correlates learning from coaches with improved student achievement?
Desired Future State
Principals discuss ideas about instruction, student learning, and school improvement with other principals in the district.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Ask principals what structures would be helpful to them for discussing instruction, student learning, and school improvement, and ask how the usefulness of the structures would be assessed.
- Schedule frequent meetings with principals for them to reflect on instruction, student learning, and school improvement.
- Feature discussion about instruction, student learning, and school improvement as part of already scheduled meetings of administrators.
- Pair principals with peers or critical friends for support and to generate new thinking about how to motivate teachers to maintain commitment to transforming the school.
- Invite principals to share promising practices they have heard about and discuss the relevance of the ideas in their schools.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How are principal meetings structured to discuss instruction, student learning, and school improvement?
- Is a meeting protocol predetermined or do principals establish it themselves? Do principals take turns facilitating the meetings?
- Are the meetings helpful or are they attended because they are required?
- Is there any record of successful practices or identified challenges?
- Would books or excerpts from books be helpful to ignite meaningful conversation?
Set Clear Performance Expectations
Practice Description
Create and share expectations for a level of professional performance in every role in the system.
- Develop and implement performance-management processes that include clear means for monitoring progress, the flexibility to rapidly respond to professional learning needs, and opportunities to revise milestones as needed.
LEA Example
LEA leaders identify which district-level roles will contribute to school improvement efforts. Leaders review and refine job expectations and descriptions to reflect realistic and high-leverage responsibilities to support rapid school improvement.
Desired Future State
District leaders analyze continuous student learning data to hold teachers and school staff accountable; district leaders also provide ongoing guidance for improvement.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Work with principals to monitor and align teacher expectations with the improvement effort.
- Prioritize using teacher time for what matters most: teaching and developing their craft for all students to learn.
- Ensure that school schedules include significant time for allowing teachers to collaborate and for building the capacity of administrators and teacher leaders to provide ongoing guidance for data review in support of student learning.
- Provide training for principals and teachers on how to analyze data, and provide structures to help teachers plan instructional adjustments based on data.
- Provide improvement plans that include professional development for individual teachers and the monitoring of student learning.
- Develop extended-year, -week, and -day programs for students and teachers, and determine ways to sustain funding for this additional time.
- Convey to parents and the community that continuous school improvement for increased student achievement is a major focus.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What does it mean for district leaders to look at student learning data, hold teachers and school staff accountable, and provide ongoing guidance for improvement?
- Do all teachers understand what to do if they are accountable for ongoing student learning?
- Who supports teachers in their accountability for student growth?
- What can be learned from districts, school leaders, and teachers who are successful in facilitating ongoing student learning? What support do they receive to be successful?
- Do the principals and teachers have a clear understanding of which data to review for a thorough analysis to guide instructional adjustments, and do they understand how to effectively triangulate all relevant data elements?
Desired Future State
Principal evaluations often reflect performance, identify areas for improvement, and offer strategies on how to improve.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Use observations data and objective language when reflecting on performance. If there have been any observation cycles that preceded the writing of the evaluation, use reflections from those cycles to suggest strategies for the principals to try.
- When identifying areas for improvement, refer to the competencies or standards that are the basis of the principal evaluation model used by the district.
- Plan ways to promote reflection when writing principal evaluations.
- Engage in dialogue with the principal about the evaluation with the intention of learning about the principal’s understanding of the cited areas for improvement and the strategies offered.
- Set up future meetings and observations to continue the conversation with the principal, and use observational data as the foundation for the meetings.
- Suggest that principals share areas of improvement and strategies with a coach to inform growth plans.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What are the purposes of principal evaluations?
- What aspects of adult learning theory are important to consider while writing evaluations and conferencing with principals?
- How does having a growth mindset relate to the evaluation?
- How will the principal be engaged in dialogue?
- How can you ascertain whether the principal understands the evaluation and understands how to show improvement?
Desired Future State
Principals spend almost all of their time on instructional leadership tasks.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Determine the most effective instructional leadership tasks for principals.
- Involve teachers, other educators, support staff, and other school and district leaders in discussions about instructional leadership.
- Schedule routine meetings at which principals discuss their successes and the barriers or challenges they face in spending most of their time on instructional leadership tasks.
- Consult principals on their specific needs for instructional leadership training and coaching.
- Provide professional learning and coaching opportunities for principals about how to prioritize competing responsibilities and tasks.
- Explore the possibility of extending school leadership roles to additional school staff.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- Are principals able to allocate time to focus on instructional tasks?
- Is there a way to distribute leadership—for example, by having one leader focus on instruction and another focus on operations?
- What is a realistic district expectation about the average number of hours each week a principal devotes to work, including during school hours, before and after school, at school events, and at home working on reports and evaluations after observations have been completed?
Desired Future State
The formative feedback principals receive effectively reflects performance, identifies areas for improvement, and offers strategies on how to improve.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Ensure that school leaders are aware of how often observation cycles will occur.
- In each observation cycle with a principal or school leader, include a planning conference to identify the areas of schoolwide improvement they are working on and to identify what would be helpful to observe and what data to collect.
- During the planning conference, discuss data on schoolwide improvement and invite reflection on what would be important next steps.
- During a reflection conference after an observation, review the data that were collected, ask open-ended questions to promote reflection, and use a range of indirect to direct informational coaching behaviors depending on the need at different parts of the discussion.
- At the end of a reflection conference, ask the observed person what was helpful, what was not helpful, and what should be changed or added in the next observation cycle.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- How is each school leader evaluation used to promote reflection and growth?
- Who does the evaluation? Is there benefit to different district staff doing observation cycles for the same person, or is having the continuity of one evaluator preferable?
- What coaching approaches are used to engage the school leader in identifying strategies for improvement and responding to strategies suggested in the evaluation?
- Does the school leader have a coach, and how is the coach involved in supporting any plans for improvement?
- Would there be benefits to sharing the observation data prior to the reflection conference and then using the reflection conference to co-construct strategies for improvement?
Desired Future State
Results from teacher evaluations are used by the district to set goals and evaluate progress.
Strategies and Suggestions
- Use data and discussions among district leaders to determine implications of teacher evaluations and to identify possible root causes of the areas in need of improvement identified by the evaluations.
- Create goals for district leaders and other district or school staff to support improvements in those areas identified by teacher evaluations.
- Develop timelines for periodically monitoring progress toward reaching the goals.
- Direct principals and school leaders to engage their staff in data dialogues to identify possible causes of areas in need of improvement and to discuss possible goals for improving in those areas.
Reflection Questions for Consideration
- What are ways to make transparent the direct link between teacher evaluation and district and school goal setting?
- What are ways to engage teachers and other school staff in discussing the teacher evaluation process and its impact on setting improvement goals? How might the teachers’ union or association help?
- How could more educators be enlisted in joining with school leaders to think about the implications of teacher evaluation data and goal setting for the district?
(See 2.3.50)
A Note on Numbering:
The numbering system corresponds to the Four Domains framework and the numbering of items in the CALL surveys. in the example 1.2.30, the first number represents the domain (ex. Domain 1), the second number represents the practice (ex. Practice 2), and the third number represents the item number from the CALL survey that is most relevant to this practice item (ex. item 30).
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The bottom label reads ‘District Vision for Student Learning (1.1.10).’ Arrows point upward to four boxes: a large top box ‘Descriptor of a practice item’; a right-side stack with ‘Domain’ above ‘Practice’; and a lower right box ‘CALL survey item that addresses this practice item.’ The arrows indicate that each element—descriptor, domain, practice, and CALL survey item—connects to the example practice item.
The bottom label reads ‘District Vision for Student Learning (1.1.10).’ Arrows point upward to four boxes: a large top box ‘Descriptor of a practice item’; a right-side stack with ‘Domain’ above ‘Practice’; and a lower right box ‘CALL survey item that addresses this practice item.’ The arrows indicate that each element—descriptor, domain, practice, and CALL survey item—connects to the example practice item.