Improving the way we observe classrooms.

School leaders who are determined to increase student achievement know that we must change instruction.

Accelerating student achievement beyond typical expectations requires a focused change in classroom instruction and a corresponding commitment of administrative time to monitoring and evaluating.

We must have substantial change in the way we do business in the classroom if we want our students to perform better. Only when administrators require a change in how teachers approach instruction and actively promote it through visibility and feedback will our students' success rate improve.

Start at the Top

Student achievement must become the priority. However, at the same time we are training teachers we need to be training evaluators in how to observe instruction.

Administrators at all levels must become knowledgeable, not only in the techniques of effective supervision and evaluation but also in the research-based instructional strategies that have been proven to increase student achievement. We need to go beyond commending lesson planning and student engagement to evaluating the design of the lesson and the instructional purpose of the activity. Effective observation, supervision and evaluation require a deep knowledge base.

Evaluators need to know what to look for and what to promote. Furthermore, we need to observe frequently and give feedback when we see it and when we don't. This ensures not only that evaluators know exactly what is going on in classrooms but provides a resource for writing end-of-year evaluations, including a documentation of deficits. We must remember if something isn't in writing, it doesn't exist.

Making It Happen

When the Burrillville School Department in Burrillville, R.I., decided to move beyond customary supervision and evaluation to commit to instructional improvement in literacy, we discovered that research-based instruction was practiced only on a limited basis.

Although we had provided workshops and in-class reading consultants, few teachers actually were implementing the strategies. In some classes, writing was focused only on responses to prompts in preparation for state testing. We found little problem solving. Most teachers were not aware of the importance of teaching concepts. Technology integration was limited to the PowerPoint presentations that students developed in place of, rather than in conjunction with, written reports or research papers.

At the same time we recognized our traditional approach to supervision and evaluation was not working. We needed to make a concerted effort to improve instruction by training teachers in the new instructional methods, fully expecting implementation of these methods, and, for our part, monitoring and providing informed feedback.

Steps Forward

Beginning last September, three district and eight building administrators, including the superintendent, set a goal to observe 150 classrooms over the course of the year, for 10 to 30 minutes a visit and, subsequently, to provide feedback about instruction to the teachers they observed. The challenge was to ensure that the observers knew what to look for.

Throughout the fall the administrators participated in peer evaluation. Discussions revealed that the observers recognized the traditional skills of effective teaching, but they had not yet internalized the research-based techniques that we believed would make a difference in student achievement. A working list of research-based strategies was created to make the job easier and peer evaluation continued throughout the year.

Observers now want to see teachers identifying the purpose of the lesson and goal to be achieved so that students understand and commit to the learning. Teachers are expected to model strategies that students can employ individually or in groups, including the use of critical (rather than recall) questions for exploration. Large and small group discussion should not be teacher-directed but facilitated so that students assume responsibility for developing ideas, but the teacher should be ready to intervene to keep the dialogue focused on the pursuit of a central concept.

Projects and presentations should be purposeful and have inherent value. Teachers and students should collaborate to develop rubrics for assessment. Tests and written assignments should be regarded as opportunities to demonstrate reasoning, to explain, to analyze ideas and to use evidence in providing substance.

Student Behaviors

In classrooms, we want to see students engaged in whole-class discussion and small-group conversation on the lesson. Students should be contributing thought-provoking comments, posing probing questions and proposing solutions to problems while analyzing and evaluating the ideas of others as well as their own.

We look for brainstorming, predicting, clarifying, interpreting, verifying, defending, persuading and extending.

We expect to see writing in every content area, from explaining the lesson of the day, to responding to a stimulating concept, to expressing ideas coherently, to elaborating at length with reason and evidence.

Classroom observers appreciate the ability of students to both self-evaluate and peer evaluate in a manner that reflects and contributes to understanding.

Finally, we expect to see a mutual commitment to the pursuit of knowledge in both teaching and learning. We can recognize when we walk into a classroom a belief that there is value in the experience. We do not accept mediocrity from teachers or students. We do not accept it from ourselves.

A Continuous Process

The observers themselves demonstrated varying degrees of skill, and the most experienced administrators were not necessarily the best observers. What is important is that they, too, developed their ability to promote and recognize excellence.

We now know that 150 observations a year was too lofty a goal, and we also found inconsistency in the number of visits to each teacher. This year we will scale back to 75, a more manageable number, and pursue equity.

There always will be teachers who constantly add to their repertoires any strategy that has the slightest chance of improving student learning. Others need our help and support to commit to professional growth. We are determined to make it happen through monitoring, constructive feedback and candid evaluation.

Barbara VonVillas is superintendent of the Burrillville School Deportment, 265 Sayles Ave., Pascoag, RI 02859. E-mail: [e-mail]