Instructional Leadership in Action

All teachers come to schools with specific strengths, but they need additional supports to truly meet the diverse needs of their students. Effective principals know this and focus their instructional leadership on teacher growth rather than evaluation system compliance.

Helping teachers improve their practice can take many forms but one essential skill principals need to succeed is to know how to give teachers effective feedback. It's not enough to step into a classroom once a year for 45 minutes and offer feedback like, “Great lesson!” “Your students seemed engaged.” “Keep up the great instructional work.” Today’s principals carve out time for frequent classroom observation and need to learn how to provide meaningful feedback.

Think about it: As educators and support professionals, how often do we hear our teachers report that their administrator is often in their classroom, and really knows them and their students? Not often enough. Teachers in general are skeptical that occasional and cursory observations mean that their supervisors are knowledgeable about their skills as an instructor and understands the needs of students as learners.

“Targeted feedback” can change this perception. It’s a powerful approach to teacher feedback that aims to enhance formal observations with ongoing, meaningful feedback that has the potential to improve teacher performance and student learning.

Giving targeted feedback is a crucial component of instructional improvement and an important support for helping teachers grow their practice throughout a school year. Starting in December, educators in California (and beyond) will have the chance to improve their targeted feedback skills in five two-day institutes across the state.

Hosted by the San Diego County Office of Education - Learning and Leadership Services Division, the specialized leadership institutes help school leaders implement structures and processes for providing teacher feedback and growth. The institutes support principals, teachers and central office leaders in developing the skills and tools for strengthening teaching practice through a collaborative feedback process that results in the improvement of student learning.

Photo by Ronnie Macdonald / CC BY 2.0

This summer, I enjoyed watching the U.S. women’s soccer team play their way to World Cup victory and Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic win the Wimbledon tennis finals. Watching these great achievements, I couldn’t help thinking: What kinds of coaches did these athletes have and what kind of feedback did the coaches give them that ultimately led them to success?

Looking for insight, I found Sarah Green Carmichael’s article in the Harvard Business Review in which she interviewed five well-known sports coaches to hear their thoughts on what it takes to coach effectively.

Giving targeted feedback is a powerful skill and an important support for helping teachers grow their practice throughout a school year. At this year's Targeted Feedback Institute (October 27-28 in Renton, Wash.), principals, instructional coaches, teacher leaders and central office leaders who supervise principals can learn and practice how to provide the kind of feedback teachers can implement immediately and independently.

The Center for Educational Leadership has been training teacher, school and district leaders in targeted feedback work for the past several years. In this updated version of the institute, participants will learn the characteristics of effective targeted feedback and how to engage in feedback cycles with their teachers that result in improved student outcomes.

Over the past decade, there has been a significant transformation in the way principals interact with teachers. Principals are no longer just managers, they are also instructional leaders. More and more, they visit classrooms throughout the school year to gather data about teacher practice and student learning in order to improve student outcomes.

Principals are also learning how to support teachers in their practice and professional growth instead of just evaluating them. This kind of support can take many different forms:

• Enlisting the help of an instructional coach
• Structuring reflective conversations
• Offering time for professional learning communities (PLCs)
• Planning and providing professional development opportunities
• Giving targeted feedback

The San Diego County Office of Education - Learning and Leadership Services Division has partnered with the University of Washington Center for Educational Leadership to offer a two-day Effective Feedback for Teacher Growth Institute.

This is a specialized Leadership Institute designed to address the needs of school leaders in implementing structures and processes for providing teacher feedback and growth through an inquiry stance. The Institute supports principals, teachers and central office leaders in developing the skills and tools for strengthening teaching practice through a collaborative feedback process that results in the improvement of student learning. ​Districts are also encouraged to send teams that include principals, teachers and a central office leader who supervises principals​​. 

As a result of the Institute:

• ​Participants will learn how to develop and provide feedback through collaborative processes based upon identified learning needs/goals
• The content will introduce formative and targeted feedback structures designed to support teacher growth of instructional practice to increase student learning

Helping educators understand what good teaching looks like is at the heart of all our efforts to improve instruction. That’s why we are excited to offer 5D+™ Stage II Online Training, a new convenient learning tool for principals, principal supervisors and teacher leaders.

5D+ Stage II Online Training develops and deepens learners’ knowledge of CEL’s instructional framework, teacher evaluation rubric, and inquiry cycle. 5D+ Stage I Online Training introduced participants to the Classroom Environment & Culture dimension of the framework and rubric as well as the 5D+ Inquiry Cycle. 5D+ Stage II Online Training provides learners an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of each of the remaining four dimensions. To get the most out of the new Stage I online training, learners should have completed Stage I, either online or in person.