Building a Connected System of Support Around a Shared Framework

I stepped into this position, in January 2025. We had not done any kind of revision in nearly twenty years, and so we were looking at some old practices and looking at some old versions of the framework. While there are still many great elements of the framework that are still present from that period, There there had been a lot of revisions, and the Danielson Group had done a great job reinvigorating the framework with the 2022 version. And so as a district, we started looking at what does it look like for us to move forward with this. And so in going through the process of adopting the '22 version, we decided to... We need to be really aligned with all the different stakeholders that touch this work. And so as you can imagine, in a large school district, we have about 17,000 students. We have over 60 schools. There are people who are in all sorts of different capacities who are touching on teacher support in one way or another, whether that's instructional coaching, support for new teachers, evaluations from the principal lens. And so what we knew was that we needed to get the same message in here from all the different people who are somehow working in that space because we know that oftentimes teachers feel overwhelmed by receiving a message from an evaluator that doesn't match maybe the PD that they receive. It's not aligned to the coaching or the mentoring, and so you have all these different messages. And so how do you take, what you wanna use as your district's framework and utilize it to see what happens on a day to day basis? And so what we did was we brought together in the course of this review and adoption of the revised rubric, we brought brought together representative stakeholders for a number of our schools, including teachers, including, our instructional coaches, and then also other central office departments. Where I am in central office and human resources, we don't oversee many of the people that we brought into the space mostly because we wanted them to be able to have the conversations around the power of the framework and how we could use it to move teaching and learning forward. And so for us, it was an opportunity to really get this cross departmental look and focus around how could we actually use it as a tool. Because for years, people have been looking at what we had and saying, like, well, the evaluation process and the framework that we have is a little bit out of date, so we're gonna create another system or create another layer, which ultimately just, you know, sort of breeds confusion in a larger system as you look at what the different layers upon layers over time have been done. And so for us, thinking about why we would bring everybody into that conversation, it was so that we could really get clear around our priorities and then also have the practitioner and the teacher voice the center of those decisions.

Lindsey, to build on this, we know one of the hardest parts of this work is moving from that shared language to shared understanding. So what's one tip you'd share with the districts working to calibrate their leaders based on what you've seen work? So I'll jump on that word calibrate first and foremost. And, you know, what Tyler and Kim have both shared are examples of opportunities for various stakeholders in the school community to do what we call talk about teaching, not about the teacher. But that in and of itself sits in a very important space for those who are at all responsible for supervision. And what we do every day, a lot, lot, lot of conversations around the practice of low inference evidence collection. It's a foundational skill with Charlotte Danielson work if you're familiar at all. But understanding that you need to suspend the confidence that you know what is best right then and there based on simply watching an instruction and understand the premise of needing to collect the evidence of what you see and hear and use a guide like the framework for teaching to align it against understanding of common language about best practice. So calibration is a word for it. Inter rater reliability is a word for it. But watch a room full of teachers. The pressure drops. Their shoulders relax, and they say, okay. These are these are people. They may not teach the subject I teach, the grade level I teach. They may have differing experiences than I do, but it's not about me. It's about the teaching. And we can all have a professional conversation across the table from one another when we look at evidence of practice, and we're simply analyzing that from that standpoint. So it is very difficult to do. I know that districts are strapped for time. Schools are strapped for time. Teachers are more strapped for time. But to create opportunities to come together to talk about teaching, use a video if you need to. We do it all the time. Right? But it merits continuous attention to ensure that we are delivering on that for the teachers themselves. They deserve it, I would say, and that teachers can trust that it's not just because they happen to have the bias that they like me because, you know, we come from the same background, for example, or they dislike me because I don't come from the same background, whatever that may be. But it's very powerful, and it's very important.

A good question because I know veteran teachers who have been doing this for thirty five years who are absolute rock stars who are terrified when someone comes in to observe them. I mean, I want everyone to come watch them because they're so fantastic. And so I think that we as leaders need to remember how scary that can feel. And and so we are very intentional about that. And as I mentioned, we've got the three year process in the state of Illinois. So the summative evaluation is the most formal piece, and that's where teachers will see the actual rubric. However, and the ratings and all of those things that when people who aren't in education think about an evaluation, that's what they would think about. However, we have a goal setting meeting at the beginning of the first, you know, the first year of the three year cycle, and that will have a... And kick up, it'll have a drop down box of all of the domains and all of the indicators. And so we ask them to focus on a couple of those for the year. And when I say a couple, I mean two or three. I don't mean 10 because we all have some teachers who want to pick every single one. And so we're intentional about focusing in certain areas. We encourage them to focus on, things that if they have been with us for a while and there might have been feedback in the previous cycle, we encourage them to focus in those areas. If they're just a fantastic teacher and we have no concerns of that nature, then we invite them to select where they'd like to focus. And then that's language we use throughout the three years, right, throughout the the primary walk through and the secondary walk through and the observations. But it's not until we get to the very end where it feels evaluateee. We also have one more piece of our evaluation plan that is specific to our school that is not part of the state requirement, and we call it a peer observation. So we take three teachers, say Lindsay and Tyler and I are the three teachers, and in the course of that second year or the first year, whenever it falls in your cycle, Lindsay and I will watch Tyler teach, and Tyler and Lindsay will watch me teach, and then Tyler and I will watch... Did I already say that? Everybody gets it. A and b watch c, c and b watch a, and a and c watch b. And the only question question that we ask on the form that our teachers have to submit and kick up is what did you learn about your own practice from watching those other two teachers? I don't want you to comment on them at all. I don't want... You know, you might say, I saw this great thing and describe it, but then talk about how you wanna implement that in your own classroom. But it is not... It is very much intended to be coaching. It is intended to be collegial feedback. These people are not formal mentors. They're not formal instructional coaches. We have all of those things as well. But it's just a chance for three teachers to watch each other teach and learn from each other.

New teacher orientation does not look like it did in, you know, when I went to orientation all those years ago. We don't do forms. We don't talk about insurance benefits. We don't do any of those kinds of things. It is... All of that happens before we get them in here for orientation. We talk about culture, and we talk about climate, and we talk about kids. And we spend an entire one of our... We do a three day orientation. We spend an entire session one morning talking about instruction. And here's what we are looking for. We don't talk about Danielson, but we use the Danielson language so they start to become familiar with it. And we model for them what some good instruction looks like, and then we give them the evaluation document. Right? That's like... And and my principal says, take this, put it away. We're gonna talk about this later. Our new teachers meet with our principal either during the day or after school every month. The second year, it's every other month, and the third year, it's quarterly. One of the topics of an entire meeting is evaluation. So we're gonna, you know, take away the fear of what's gonna happen by explaining to you exactly what it's gonna look like. Here's who's gonna be in your room. Here's when they're gonna be in your room so that we can demystify some of that. The other thing that my principal gives to them is what we call a permission to fail certificate. And, it says their name... Oh, look. We are gonna have a copy here. Wait just a moment. There we go. And they actually get a physical piece of paper that says you have permission to fail. We want you to try cool new things. We don't want you to always play it safe. Now you don't get to use this every single day, but what this means is if you try something you've never done before, if you're a very first year teacher, everything is something you've never done before, Or if you're a veteran teacher who's coming to us as a new teacher, we want you to try that thing. Don't stick with the safe dog and pony show. Try the new thing. We'll give you feedback. If it bombs, guys, we'll come in again. It's okay. And so that is just a piece of our culture that I think really speaks to how we come about this.

Have a long established peer assistance and review program in St. Louis public schools. So that means we have teachers essentially who are on assignment that serve as both coaches and evaluators for our teachers who are coming in, through a program called St. Louis plan. And so that program, really takes a lead on getting our new teachers introduced into what this framework looks like and how they actually use it and how they get familiar with it. And so they take the lead in that work. So our our teachers go through a full week sort of orientation at the very beginning of the year, And our initially certified teachers, who are new to teaching and then also any teachers who are new to the district who've previously been somewhere else, we bring them as... In as well. And so part of what they do in that back to school professional involvement is they get an opportunity to take a look at the framework in addition to a lot of other things they learn, but to get into the framework in a more detailed way. And they get a chance to really delve more deeply into the different components and the elements of success that make up those components. They have conversations around what that, what what kind of the tools are and the things are that are... Can use... Being used to support them, and then they get an opportunity to meet with the consultant teacher who's gonna be their evaluator during that first year. So allowing them the space to do that, I think, in one way, it has really helped us as we've made the transition to a newer version of the Danielson framework because we know that all of our first year teachers are getting an introduction in-depth to the framework coming in. We know that then our teachers who are veteran teachers who have been around more than a year, like, there's more work on the school to make that transition. But the idea that we do that, and provide that instructional support in a more detailed way sets the stage for the future. Something new that we've done this year is we have, in a large system, we have many teachers who are teaching, and who are in pipeline programs pursuing certification or not certified. And so what we were using for a long time was a a simple substitute evaluation for our non certificated staff that really was not needy enough for the needs that we have for people who are serving as teachers of record in front of children from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. And so we worked in our adoption of the framework to take the framework itself and utilize the language to look at what those expectations for... Would be for those individuals. So now that people who are being, and coming to us as part of those programs and they're working through and transitioning to become, hopefully, a certified teacher and going through their prep programs. They're actually also being exposed to framework and learning exactly what it is that it takes, to be performing at that... On that rubric. And so they get to see that early on rather than wait and, you know, potentially develop bad habits or be in a situation where you're not used to what those expectations look like. We basically raised the bar for those, employees and said, this is sort of what we expect to see. Now let's help support you there. And I think what... That has also been well received from both our leaders and then our our teachers who see that really as a sign of respect to say, you know, we give you and extend you this professionalism and, you know, show you that you can grow and develop as a teacher. And even though you may be working and you're not certified yet, but you will be, we show you that your development matters to us also.

Curious, Lindsay, what you wish every new teacher understood about the framework in their, first year. So I'm gonna think about the many instances I've been in front of a room full of teachers looking at me and thinking, here she comes with that thing that they're just gonna make up and just figure out a way to make sure that it's something complicated that we don't understand, and it's just gonna be here to get... Catch us in action and not doing well. And we do a simple activity called the wisdom of practice. It's been around for years. We ask teachers to envision their own memory of a teacher they would consider just absolutely incredible. Someone that... Maybe it was themselves. Maybe it was someone they had as a child. Maybe it's someone down the hall. And they come out of that memory, and they align it just to the components of the framework. And I say, look what you just did. You have described instructional excellence yourself. You come to the table with so much wisdom and expertise already. We now... We give language to it. And that is a tool that you can use to pinpoint areas where you would say, wow. I'm really excelling in this. And areas as well where you say, you know, I hadn't actually worked on that before, and I'd like to learn more. And where can you start? And then we look at the professional learning opportunities available. So it is meant to attend to you as an expert.

What you can see here is this is, Kallie. She's a second year first grade teacher. So I want you actually to picture yourself as her principal about to walk into her classroom. So this is her KickUp profile. It's got everything you kind of need to know about what she's engaged in so far in KickUp. So up top is an AI summary that's reading across everything going on with Kallie behind the scenes, like her coaching, her PD, her evaluation, her classroom walks, even her surveys, like, you know, the the kinds of things Kim mentioned that she's giving feedback on to, to the district. So, her evaluation goal is Danielson three b, questioning and discussion. And if we click in, we can actually see, like, her success criteria, what she's aiming for in this. And then alongside that, her coaching goal says the same thing but in teacher language. So, like, more students explaining how they solve the thing. And as her principal, I can see, that's what she's working on in coaching, but, we've got that, like, safeguard wall that I can't see those confidential coaching notes. So I think the important point is we're all still rowing in the same direction. And kind of knowing that those are her goals, if we go back to her AI summary, that KickUp puts together, we can see what's kind of coming up consistently, and I'll them there. It's the questioning and student discussion that are very much, like, central to her goals in evaluation and coaching. Right? Questioning the discussion, questioning that gets students talking, student discourse. You can see it kind of all over the place embedded in there because the whole system is aligned to the same framework. And because everyone around her, like Tyler kinda mentioned, is speaking that same language, hopefully, we see Callie do that too. And we've actually heard back from districts. Like, this is what happens when you're all speaking the same language. The teacher is gonna start to speak that same language too. So when she asked for help, she's asking for it in terms of those goals that are very obvious in her kickoff profile. So let's see part of that, what she told us her needs are in her survey. And for that, I'm gonna click over to the submissions tab. And every coaching walk evaluation and survey form by and about Callie lives here. So the first... Or I'm sorry. The last thing she submitted was that district professional learning need assessment survey, and it wasn't anonymous survey. So it shows up right on her profile, and I'm gonna kind of dive a layer deeper into what this says. Right? So what we can see is she asked for help. She wants more coaching support in her actual classroom. She wants follow-up from the PD that she took in September. So I just think having those details kind of front and center where the principal can access them, then we can take action on it. Right? So that's her own words, and it's kinda pointing right back at three b, her coaching and eval goals. Whether she uses the language of three b or not, that's what it's aligned to.

Click into, a walk into Kallie's Classroom and see how that can look. Okay. So this is my walks roster. These are evaluations. These are just regular classroom visits, and I know that can also spark some anxiety no matter what it is, but this is not evaluation. This is a walk. And I already actually have one going for Cali. So when I click into it, what I'm seeing here are my scripted notes. And as I... As I'm coming in, I'm just typing exactly what I... What I'm seeing in her classroom, and I'm getting those time stamp notes. They're tagged if it's a student or a teacher action. And, actually, I'll sample it right here in front of you. If I I type a note, it's going to automatically, make suggestions for what framework tags this might be. And as I know, you know, how'd you get to that? She's asking questions. Student explained the strategy. I'm gonna tag that to three b. And if I click this insight sidebar as the observer, what I'm gonna get is a summary of all of kind of my my session with Cali in that classroom visit that day, but I'm also gonna get the in context of my past submissions of with Cali. So I'm going into the classroom prepared with an understanding of what's already happened with this teacher. It's pulling on that history. I can choose to share my scripted notes with the tags with Cali or not. In this case, they are not. But what I can see here is a running count of what I've I've, you know, submitted evidence about in in my scripted notes so far, and I can see my three b. I've got six pieces of evidence that align to that. Now I'm gonna click over to the form, and this is where, the teacher is gonna see that feedback. And what we've heard from observers is this is where they're saving a lot of time and also giving really, like, more quality feedback with this process. So what you can see in this form is what areas of strength did you observe? So, again, this isn't pulling in those evaluation framework languages. It's it's a question you could consider, like, having a good conversation about with a teacher. The support the observer is getting is this is actually gonna give me a summary of what I script and what I saw in that classroom that day. Furthermore, I can have, KickUp suggest a response using AI. This feature can be turned off or turned on based on, you know, your district's policy, but, it's gonna kinda give me a suggested response that I can choose to edit and paste in. Now if your district is using more evaluate... Wants to kind of, like, centralize and, you know, emphasize that evaluation language, you can set your form up however you want and and really tag into evidence however you want here. So behind the scenes, what I just showed you, everything I wrote down lines up with the frameworks same way her goal does, her coaching, her PD. But Callie just gets, like, good specific feedback, And it's the same language underneath, but it doesn't have to feel like an evaluation.