Mrs. M, an experienced mentor teacher, pulled me aside recently and whispered, "Help! The novice teacher I'm supporting is not using formative assessments during instruction to monitor student learning. Students are confused and unprepared for end-of-unit summative assessments. I'm not sure what to do!"
As an education specialist who had been visiting her school for several years to support new teacher induction, I reminded Mrs. M of her district's instructional rubric, which defines effective tenets of teaching such as classroom environment and student engagement, planning and instruction for active learning, and teacher leadership.
In the spirit of inquiry, I asked, "What might happen if you and your novice teacher discuss the assessment components of the instructional rubric together to support common understanding?"
What happened next took me by surprise. Mrs. M's mouth dropped open. "But that rubric is what my administrator uses to evaluate me!" she said, her eyes wide. "I shouldn't be looking at that!"
Since then, I've heard a similar message from teachers in other districts and schools: The instructional rubric belongs to someone who evaluates. The rubric doesn't inform my day-to-day work or reflection. I'm not clear about how our school defines effective teaching.
Though teachers at Ms. M's school have access to instructional rubrics as part of their professional development, administrators are often the only ones using rubrics at evaluation events, such as postobservation conferences and end-of-year meetings.
If we heard comments like these from students, indicating that learners were unclear about the goal or unfamiliar with common criteria for success, we would likely reflect on what went awry in our practice and partner with students to support clear learning outcomes moving forward. We want students to know exactly what success looks like. We should want that for teachers, too.
A Team Effort
As teachers of teachers, school leaders can enhance teachers' skills to effectively guide learning when they identify clear learning outcomes and criteria for success. As school leaders plan to support growth within evaluation and supervision, they should ask themselves:
- What should adult learners know and be able to do?
- What does successful teaching and learning look like or sound like?
- How should I involve adult learners in the answers to these questions?
Here are three ways that school leaders and teachers can work together to create effective instruction that enhances teaching and learning:
1. Demystify success.
The instructional rubric provides a common standard for the ways we collectively understand effective teaching. Teachers and leaders can use the rubrics in both informal and formal evaluative settings. Clear goals and criteria for success provide access for all to engage in the work. In evaluation settings, teachers can use their knowledge and the language of the rubric to engage in more productive feedback conversations with administrators.
2. Construct meaning together.
School leaders and teachers can leverage professional learning time, faculty meetings, or districtwide development days to construct meaning about the language of the rubric together. They can share collaborative electronic spaces such as Google docs to add examples of practices or resources aligned to standards throughout the year. If you're especially short on time, focus on high-leverage indicators that have the greatest impact on learning, such as those related to classroom environment, cognitive engagement, and assessment.
Leaders can also offer teachers in similar grades levels or content areas time to contextualize the broader language. Teachers might highlight key phrases that describe practice across the levels of performance and discuss patterns or themes that emerge. Where is clarification needed about the meaning of particular words or phrases? Does the group understand each word or phrase in the same way? Are there footnotes or other resources that might help confirm a common understanding?
Teachers who work in similar contexts could also discuss this question: What might we see or hear as evidence of this practice? For example, what might cognitive engagement look like or sound like in kindergarten language arts or 6th grade science or 11th grade physical education? Come to consensus about possible outcomes that distinguish proficient from developing practice.
3. Provide time for aligned self-reflection and feedback.
Self-reflection or collaborative peer reflection aligned to the rubric might occur during grade or department meetings or between mentor and novice teachers. Within an evaluation process, self-reflection might occur during or prior to a goal-setting meeting or after a classroom observation. Invite frequent self-assessment aligned to the success criteria to solidify a common understanding of effective instruction across all teaching and learning settings.
Support aligned self-reflection with regular, clear and actionable feedback aligned to the instructional rubric performance standards. Use objective evidence to align the current level of teacher practice with the standards, as well as areas of strength and corrective feedback. Feedback grounded in the success criteria helps teachers understand where they are in relation to the goal and paves the way to close any gaps or extend practice to support student learning.
At Mrs. M's school, we used these three steps as the district implemented a new component of the teacher induction program—a team that trains mentor teachers to support their novices in implementing effective teaching aligned to the rubric. The through line of the rubric supports coherence in professional learning and evaluation across a teacher's career.
With practices like these in place, teachers and leaders can together develop an ongoing understanding of effective teaching aligned to the district's expectations.