This year, the district invited school leadership teams to participate in on-going professional development. Ms. Ford,
Ms. Varella, and Ms. Vecchiarello attended multiple sessions
throughout the school year joining in the rich dialogue of the
course “Analyzing Teaching for Student Results”. The
course, along with on-going consultancy, is the work of John
Saphier and Research for Better Teaching (RBT). Course
outcomes, as outlined on the program overview are:
- demonstrating the capacity to gather data of patterns
of practice over time for individuals, grade levels,
departments, and across a school and to provide
feedback as a result of analysis of that data
- demonstrating the capacity to communicate
effectively after classroom observations . . . using
balanced analysis
- demonstrating skill at analyzing literal notes from
classroom observation in order to 1) make supported
claims about lesson alignment and two to three
significant teaching/learning events and 2) generate
questions to promote reflection and next steps
- demonstrating the capacity to write balanced analysis
of a classroom observation involving multiple data
sources . . . .
- reflecting on your growth as an instructional leader as
a result of your field work, identified area for growth
and course experiences
- organizing the tools for supervision and evaluation by
creating analyst’s notebook
-from Research for Better Teaching, Inc., Program Overview
The course culminated with a site visit to the Peabody School
with a consultant, Ms. Kathy Spencer, from RBT. After
meeting with Ms. Ford, Ms. Varella, and Ms. Vecchiarello,
Ms. Spencer joined the team in a classroom observation of Mr.
Kelly’s fifth grade class. The observation was followed by an
extended conference to de-brief the observation. The entire
experience was important and compelling, and a complement
to the other work of the Peabody leadership team (DataWise;
Harvard University and Facilitative Leadership; Gene
Thompson Grove).
After meeting, Ms. Spencer provided the Peabody leadership
team with feedback. Here is that feedback:
You are working as an accountable team. . . . Accountable
teams hold each other’s feet to the [fire], embrace conflict and
see authority for the work as shared – versus top down.
Accountable teams work to standards and always keep the
kids first. They aren’t afraid to challenge each other.
That’s what I saw yesterday.
It doesn’t happen often enough.
~ from Kathy Spencer, RBT consultant, email dated March
31, 2015