Improving Instruction Through Supervision, Evaluation, and Professional Development

Second Edition

by

Michael F. DiPaola and Charles A. Wagner
The College of William & Mary

Information Age Publishing, Inc.

Charlotte, North Carolina

www.infoagepub.com

CONTENTS

Preface

1. Learning Leadership

2. An Integrated Model of Learning Leadership

3. Creating a School Context to Improve Student Learning

4. A Model for Classroom Supervision

5. Supervision of Instruction

6. Supervisory Skills

7. High Quality Instruction

8. Improving Instruction

9. Professional Development

10. Evaluation

11. Implementing Evaluation

12. Supervision and Professional Development: An Application

13. Evaluation, Supervision, and Professional Development: Applications      

Appendices   

References   

About the Authors   

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

CIP data for this book can be found on the Library of Congress website:
http://www.loc.gov/index.html

Paperback: 978-1-64113-166-7

Hardcover: 978-1-64113-167-4

E-Book: 978-1-64113-168-1

Copyright © 2018 IAP–Information Age Publishing, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or by photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise without written permission from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America.

PREFACE

This second edition of Improving Instruction Through Supervision, Evaluation, and Professional Development reflects what we’ve learned from working with both teachers and administrators who have implemented our supervisory model in efforts to improve both teaching and learning. We’ve maintained the conceptual framework while updating sections to provide the most recent research on instructional strategies that have the most promise of helping all students learn. Modifications of the law resulting from the reauthorization of the 50-year-old Elementary and Secondary Education Act—Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) (2015)—and their implication for practice are embedded throughout this new edition. Updated data collection tools for classroom observations are also provided. We included the link to a website that contains all the observation tools in electronic format so that observers can have the opportunity to collect data on a tablet or laptop, save the observation data as a PDF file and e-mail those data to the teacher observed.

We continue to believe that teachers and principals need to work together to improve instruction in schools. This new edition recognizes the reality that all principals are responsible for supervision, evaluation, and professional development of their teachers—tasks that are neither simple nor without conflict. The primary audience of this text is aspiring and practicing principals. We hope to help them understand both the theory and practice of supervision, evaluation, and professional development. Observing instruction, collecting data for reflection, and having conversations about teaching, however, are not the sole provinces of principals. Master teachers, teacher leaders, and teacher colleagues can also benefit from the supervisory sections of the book, especially the chapters on high-quality instruction, improving instruction, and the classroom data collecting tools.

We don’t believe that teaching and learning will improve unless principals and teachers work together as a team. Principals and teacher col- leagues have the responsibility of helping teachers become more effective, and by that we mean improving student learning. Increased teacher effectiveness occurs through the professional development of teachers, which is embedded in the informal, formative process of supervision.

CONTENTS OF THE BOOK

The text addresses the critical aspects principals need to improve instruction:

•Learning Leadership—The principal is responsible for defining and communicating shared goals, monitoring and providing feedback about teaching and learning, and promoting school-wide professional development. Teachers and administrators must learn to work together in ways that increase student achievement.

•Improving the School Context—Principals are critical in developing the culture and climate of schools such that improvement of instruction is central and supported.

•Supervising—We distinguish between helping teachers be better teachers and evaluating their competence. Supervision is the collegial and informal process of helping teachers improve their teaching.

•Improving Instruction—Systematically evaluating, supervising, and developing teachers’ abilities is a pathway to increased student learning, which is the focus of this text.

•Professional Development—Lifelong learning is a salient aspect of the professional lives of teachers. In the supervision and evaluation of teachers, the principal is responsible for identifying and providing resources that ensure continued professional growth. The goal of job-embedded professional development is the improvement of teaching and learning.

•Evaluating—Assessing overall teacher performance is a formal role mandated by the state and district. Principals must make the hard decision of recommending lifetime employment for teachers and ensuring quality of instruction.

•Integration—Supervision, evaluation, and professional development are integral and complementary aspects of the role of the principal as learning leader. It is counterproductive to attempt any one in isolation.

•Applying Theory to Practice—Principals must be able to translate good theory and research into sound practice. We provide hands- on and authentic applications of the concepts and principles of supervision, evaluation, and professional development.

We hope you will find this a stimulating and useful book—one that guides your thoughts and actions about teaching, learning, supervising, evaluating, and developing professionally—all of which will help you become an instructional leader.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Our colleagues in the field and at universities are important sources of ideas and criticism. First, we would like to extend our thanks to Wayne K. Hoy, Professor Emeritus, Ohio State University. As co-author of the first two versions of this text he provided much of the conceptual capital, reflected in the theory and research herein. We also thank Professor Patrick Forsyth at the University of Oklahoma who coauthored Effective Supervision: Theory into Practice, which originally inspired our work. We are indebted to Anita Woolfolk Hoy, Professor Emerita, Ohio State University, for her advice and intellectual contributions to this project. 

Conceptualizing a research-based, practical method of collecting class- room data that observers could collect easily and that teachers could understand, analyze, and reflect upon was no small undertaking. It required not only practical experience in classroom observation and an understanding of high-yield instructional strategies, but also creativity in designing observation tools that were clear and user-friendly. We are indebted to Valerie DiPaola, who brought her wealth of experience in the classroom, as a master teacher, supervisor, and director of instruction to bear on the creation and design of many of the data collection tools and observation guidelines presented here.

We would be remiss not to acknowledge the advice and contributions of our practitioner colleagues who provided the cases, reactions, and criticism that grounded this book in practice. Finally, we extend our gratitude to Diana Theisinger for her editing assistance.

FEATURES OF THE BOOK

Each chapter is grounded in the latest research and theory and provides specific suggestions for applying that knowledge to practice. Throughout the text, you will find numerous tools specifically designed to collect a variety of data in classrooms to improve instruction. Embedded in each chapter are exercises that require you to apply Theory into Practice by responding to a set of questions posed by the key issues of the chapter. After the explication and illustration of the key concepts and principles of the chapter, we provide an actual Instructional Leadership Challenge as described by a successful practicing principal. We challenge you in Reflective Practice to compare the actions of these expert principals with theory, research, and the best practices summarized in the chapter. We also invite you to Develop a Portfolio exhibit based on your learning and experience. If you create at least one exhibit for your portfolio from each chapter, by the end of the course you will have a comprehensive and useful set of personal plans for implementing an instructional improvement strategy in your school.

We also challenge you with a Communication Exercise and Application Exercise in each chapter to practice and model effective techniques for conveying information, while fine-tuning your interpersonal skills. After, examining exercises about a particularly difficult issue, we conclude by providing a brief set of suggested Readings to complement the content of the chapters. Throughout the text in our Theory into Practice exercises, we connect and highlight the activities, tasks, and events with the appropriate Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL) and The International Society for Technology in Education Standards for Administrators (ITSE). The Appendices provide a set of valuable tools: a sample evaluation instrument, forms, observation guides, and helpful websites for principals.

Michael F. DiPaola

Charles A. Wagner
Williamsburg, Virginia