Establishing a Common
Instructional Language &
Supporting
Teacher Development
Dr. Jim Lloyd, Assistant Superintendent
Olmsted Falls City Schools

In public education, there are several waves of change approaching for the purpose of:
Ensuring high school graduates have the necessary skills to qualify for and succeed in college level courses and postsecondary job training

• Victim of Change
Or
• Acceptor of Change
Or
• Leader of Change

2014-15

Simultaneous Change
Curriculum,
Instruction &
Assessment
Educator
Credentialing
Master Teacher
Program
ODE
Assessments in Sci and SS
PARCC
Assessments for Common
Core
By 2014-15 School Year
Improved Outcomes for Students

You are all school leaders so…
…what do you want for middle/high school learners?
Turn and talk to someone near you to quickly brainstorm what you want from your middle school/high school learners.

• Post secondary readiness
• Readers
• Engaged learners
• Critical thinkers
• Problem-solvers
• Productive citizens
• Difference makers
…AND…
• High levels of student achievement
• High levels of student growth

How can secondary school administrators help achieve these aims?
…how do you help teachers make this possible?
Turn and talk to someone near you to quickly brainstorm how you can help.

• Focus on the right things
▫ Things that can be more universally applied
(macro strategies v. micro strategies)
• Focus on only a few things
▫ i.e. The Hedgehog concept (see Jim Collins)
• Seek evidence of implementation and be relentless in your pursuit

Our Purpose Today—
Discussing How to Bring It to Scale
• What do we want?
▫ —Prepared Students
• How can secondary school administrators help?
▫ –Focus
▫ —Implement
▫ —Support
• What is THE method whereby we can get what we want and help make it happen?
Supervision/Evaluation

What is the purpose of supervision/evaluation?
• Too Narrow
▫ To renew a teacher contract
▫ To follow a negotiated agreement

What is the purpose of supervision/evaluation?
• To determine building (and ultimately district) implementation of our agreed upon nonnegotiables.
• To validate our common instructional language
• To ensure effective instructional practices
• To direct resources to support the development of teachers
Anything else that you can think of?

The Supervisory Behavior Continuum
Listening Clarifying Encouraging Reflecting Presenting Problem-Solving Negotiating Directing Standardizing Reinforcing
T s
What factors influence whether you are an
“s” or an “S”?
T=Maximum teacher responsibility S=Maximum supervisor responsibility
S t t=Minimum teacher responsibility s=Minimum supervisor responsibility
Nondirective Collaborative Directive
Informational
Directive Control

What will be required of us?

The Ohio Teacher Evaluation System
Will Be:
• Grounded in teacher performance standards (50%)
▫ Effective instructional planning
 Focus for learning
 Prior content; sequence and connections
 Knowledge of Students
▫ Effective instruction and assessment
 Lesson delivery
 Differentiation
 Effective use of teaching resources
 Classroom Environment
▫ Professionalism
 Communicating with students and families

1.
Communication—classroom walkthroughs
(CWTs) help to establish strong communication lines between teacher and student
2.
Intellectual Stimulation—CWTs help ensure faculty is aware of most current instructional research and practice
3.
Monitoring/evaluating—CWTs help monitor effective practice.
4.
Situational Awareness—CWTs help identify details and undercurrents of situations.
5.
Visibility—CWTs help admins be visible

Things we know from more research
• Cotton (2003). Principals and Student Achievement:
What the Research Says
▫ Visibility and accessibility; collaboration; instructional leadership; observation and feedback to teachers
• Strong, Richard, & Catano (2008). Qualities of
Effective Principals
▫ Building and sustaining school vision; shared leadership; leading a learning community; using data to make instructional decisions; monitoring CIA

CWTs: To Improve Teaching and Learning
Kachur, Stout & Edwards (2010)
• CWTs are not teacher evaluations
• CWT identify opportunities for improvement and support sharing
• CWTs should be used to evaluate instructional and curricular practices; not people

CWTs/Informal Observations from
OTES

• Get administrators on the same page
▫ Collaboratively define HQ instructional elements
• Establish an agreed upon pedagogy that has demonstrated high effectiveness (e.g. AfL)
• Utilize leadership structures (DLT, BLTs and TBTs) to define what the short-term and long-term focus will be
• Honestly determine what support is needed (Prof
Dev) to help staff get there

• Use the OTES/OPES as an opportunity to build a common instructional language
• Gather real time instructional exemplars http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX5iwws52AI