Doing Teacher Supervision and Evaluation Right

Slides by Kim Marshall

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 Who is Kim Marshall?
Former teacher and principal
Author of the Marshall
Memo--a weekly
compendium of the most
relevant educational articles
and news for the week
Mentor to Paul
Bambrick-Santoyo
Author of Rethinking Teacher
Supervision and Evaluation:
How to Work Smart, Build
Collaboration, and Close the
Achievement Gap
 Todays Purpose
(Learning Intentions)
Today we will explore what the research says about
the effectiveness of formative observation.

Today we will continue exploring the tool and

establishing interrater reliability through a video
observation.
 Success Criteria
We will plan, create, and share processes to
establish, monitor, and evaluate formative teacher
observations in our schools.

We will watch a video observation and review a

lesson plan in order to determine which question
we would stop on and the most appropriate action
step to take.
Approximate free and reduced-price
lunch percent of your students
1. 0-10
2. 11-20
3. 21-30
4. 31-40
5. 41-50
6. 51-60
7. 61-70
8. 71-80
9. 81-90
10. 91-100
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 Four hard truths
Kids learn considerably more from some teachers
than from others
Every single school has a range of teaching quality
from excellent to less-than-effective
Kids who walk into school with any kind of
disadvantage have a greater need for good or great
teaching.
Traditional evaluations make it very difficult for
principals to honestly and accurately evaluate
teachers.

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 Why traditional evaluation
is inaccurate and ineffective
So time-consuming that teachers are evaluated on only one
or two of the 900 lessons they teach a year an inadequate
sampling and not nearly enough to change practice.
Formal evaluations are usually announced in advance,
which means supervisors see optimal, not typical teaching,
often giving an inaccurate picture.
The detailed feedback teachers get is often overwhelming,
poorly timed, and unhelpful, sparking teacher resistance and
cynicism You dont understand my world!
Every evaluation takes me out of the game for four hours.
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 The key to
improved student learning
is to ensure more good teaching
in more classrooms
more of the time.
DuFour and Mattos, 2013

But how? 10
Each teacher teaches 900 lessons a year

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Nothing undermines the motivation of hard-working
teachers more than poor performance in other teachers
being ignored over long periods of time.
Not only do poor-performing teachers negatively
affect the students in their classes, but they also have a
spillover effect by poisoning the overall climate of the
school.
Michael Fullan, 2003

Silence when performance disappoints prolongs pain,

increases stress, and affirms mediocrity.
Dan Rockwell, 2016
 Some take-aways
Teaching is incredibly complex and demanding work.
Teachers are on their own with kids 99.9% of the time.
All teachers have ups and downs.
But some have a much more positive impact than others.
The key: consistent, day-to-day quality
The teachers worst fear: being judged on one
not-so-good lesson
The supervisors seemingly impossible challenge:
Getting a fair overall picture for evaluation
Coaching all teachers to continuously improve 15
Which ones have a proven positive impact on
teaching?
A. Hire great teachers and leave them alone
B. Better training in the traditional evaluation model
C. Lesson plan inspection
D. Teachers submit binders of artifacts and evidence
E. Teachers submit videos of lessons (Best Foot Forward)
F. Scripted, teacher-proof curriculum materials
G. Wyoming once-a-year surprise videotaping
H. Cameras in every classroom, principal and parent log-in
I. Value-added measurement (VAM) for merit pay, firing
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 MINI-OBSERVATIONS

Authenticity seeing daily classroom reality:

1. Unannounced
2. Frequent
3. Short
4. Systematic

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 1. Unannounced
This causes anxiety.
The implicit message: Good teaching should be happening
virtually all the time.
But essential to getting an accurate appraisal of teaching:
Trust but verify
Honest quality assurance, believable praise and coaching
But to be fair, unannounced visits must be frequent.

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 2. Frequent
How often to accurately sample daily classroom reality?
Need to see different times of day, days of the week
Beginning, middle, and end of lessons
Different elementary subjects, different secondary classes
Enough for teachers and students to get used to visits
Enough to authentically coach and praise
Enough to put together an accurate picture of the year
What is a reasonable and realistic number?
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 What would be the best combination?
(assuming a total of 100 mins./teacher)
1. 33 visits, three minutes each
2. 20 visits, five minutes each
3. 10 visits, ten minutes each
4. 5 visits, twenty minutes each
5. 2 visits, fifty minutes each
6. Other

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If ten for the year, how many a day?
Do the math for your school
# of teachers Minis for year # per day Stretch goal

60 600 3.3 4

50 500 2.7 3

40 400 2.2 3

30 300 1.7 2

20 200 1.1 2

10 100 .6 1
3. Short How long in a classroom
to form a meaningful impression?
1. 1 minute
2. 3 minutes
3. 5 minutes
4. 10 minutes
5. 15 minutes
6. 20 minutes
7. 25 minutes
8. 35 minutes
9. 45 minutes
10. 1 hour or more
10-15 minutes
The optimal
amount of time?

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 Pre-observation conferences?
Not practical if visits are unannounced
Why pre-observation conferences?
To know whats going to be taught
To help teachers improve lesson plans
Madeline Hunters 1986 article (MM 464)
Not a good use of time; the post-conference is what matters
The teacher can feel locked in; builds bias on both sides
Need the bigger picture of curriculum
The alternative:
High-quality team curriculum unit planning
Spot-check lesson plans during minis
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 Full-lesson observations ever?
Yes, in three situations:
Rookies (ideally by instructional coaches, mentors)
Unsatisfactory teachers, by a supervisor
(the skill of doing good write-ups is vital here)
If invited by a teacher to comment on a lesson
(give the feedback in a brief face-to-face talk)
The rest of the time, lots of mini-observations
But in many schools, this is a leap of faith.

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 4. Systematic
The challenge: keeping up a steady pace year-long
Busy with discipline, e-mail, paperwork, parents
Too many teachers to supervise
Spending too much time in each classroom
Lengthy pre- and post-observation conferences
Burdensome paperwork after each visit
Avoidance
Cynicism: what difference does it make?
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 Multiple supervisors?

With 2 or more supervisors, several possible models

Each takes a portion of the staff
Split up, then rotate at mid-year
Co-observing all year
APs split, principal does everyone more briefly
Peer observers part of the mix
In small buildings, involving lead teachers?

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Combining to get to weekly visits?
The supervisor does official minis once a month
An instructional coach or peer does 3 a month

Coordinate to spread visits out

Collaborate on coaching points

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 Getting Better Faster:
HCS Formative Observation Tool

November 3, 2016
Why?
From Formal to Formative

From this

To this

One 45 minute formal More frequent

for continuing contract 15 minute observations
Why?
Leverage Leadership & Get Better Faster

Research-driven
Evidence that it works
Step-by-Step toolkit
How?
The Three-Step Observation

Identify Observe
action teacher &
Observe step(s) & assess
teacher practice mastery of
with action
teacher step(s)
Lets try it out!

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