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www.TheMainIdea.net By Jenn David-Lang

Its an age-old question: does supervision improve teaching? Historically, teacher supervision has had little impact on teacher practice

and even less on student performance. However, partially fueled by Race to the Top money, there is a new national focus on

improving teacher supervision and evaluation, and if youre not up to speed on this topic, this is a great book to get you started.

Charlotte Danielson is a pioneer in the field of teacher supervision (you might say shes the mother of the teacher evaluation rubrics

movement). She believes most existing systems of teacher evaluation are based on outmoded criteria, observations are conducted on

the run by poorly trained evaluators who are not sure what they should be looking for, and virtually all teachers are rated at the top of

whatever scale is used. In response to this problem, she created the first set of teacher evaluation rubrics or scoring guides which

lay out four major components of teaching (Planning and Preparation, The Classroom Environment, Instruction, and Professional

Responsibilities). These rubrics describe a teachers performance at levels from 1 (Unsatisfactory) to 4 (Distinguished) in each of her

four domains. In 1996 she published these ideas in her seminal work,Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching.

Now, others have built on Danielsons work and have published their own teacher evaluation rubrics with hopes of improving teacherpractice. There is an added demand for such rubrics in states that have won Race to the Top money (such as here in my home state,

New York) and must adopt them this year. The set of Marzano Teacher Evaluation Rubrics is one of the choices for evaluating

teachers that schools are using here in New York and across the country. However, even if your school is not specifically using

Marzanos rubrics, this book is a worthwhile read to help school leaders improve their approaches to teacher supervision.

In their book,Effective Supervision: Supporting the Art and Science of Teaching, Robert Marzano, along with Tony Frontier and

David Livingston, describe the Marzano Evaluation Model. The authors present a comprehensive approach to thinking about teacher

supervision that includes five components that systematically improve teacher practice. These five components are based on research,as is much of Robert Marzanos work. This model builds on previous research presented in works such as The Art and Science of

Teaching(2007) and Classroom Instruction That Works (2001). The authors argue that to truly impact teaching, a school needs to

have all fiveof the models components below its not enough to just adopt his teacher rubrics.

(1) A well-articulated knowledge base for teaching (4) Clear criteria and a plan for success

(2) Focused feedback and practice (5) Recognition of expertise(3) Opportunities to observe and discuss expertise

Although the authors outline five essential aspects of improving teacher practice, the strongest and most detailed part of the book is

the presentation of the Marzano teacher evaluation rubrics. The first of these five key ingredients to improve teaching is a knowledge

base of teaching and this is where the authors introduce the rubrics. In the rubrics, teaching is divided into four Domains: (1)

classroom strategies and behaviors, (2) planning and preparing, (3) reflecting on teaching, and (4) collegiality and professionalism.

Each of the four domains comes from a strong research base as to what makes for an effective teacher.

While Danielson also has four primary domains, and breaks these into a similar number of subcategories, Marzano claims this is

where the similarity ends. He says the emphasis in his model is different because the majority of his subcategories (41 of the 60 total)

fall into Domain 1, classroom strategies and behaviors. He has placed the most emphasis on Domain 1 because it is the most directly

linked to improved student achievement. Domain 1 is comprised of nine questions with subcategories for each question. Below is an

example of the first question and its three subcategories:

Design Question 1: What will I do to establish and communicate learning goals, track student progress, and celebrate success?

1. Providing clear learning goals and scales to measure those goals2. Tracking student progress3. Celebrating student success

BOOK REVIEW

Effective Supervision:Supporting the Art and Science of TeachingBy Robert J. Marzano, Tony Frontier, and David Livingston (ASCD, 2011)

8/12/2019 Effective Supervision - Review - 1-22-12

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1BOOK REVIEW ofEffectiveSupervisionby Robert J.Marzano, Tony Frontier, and David Livingston By Jenn David-Lang

Given that there are 60 subcomponents a principal must rate a teacher on, my first reaction was that this is overwhelming. How can a

principal possibly keep 60 different skills in mind when supervising and evaluating a teacher? However, teaching is complex. If you

need a reminder of this, just read Jon Saphiers The Skillful Teacher, the classic 500-page book that serves as the encyclopedia of the

knowledge base of teaching. Its hard to imagine whittling down all the skills teachers need to fewer than sixty. Furthermore, this

number is in line with Danielsons subcategories as well as other models of teacher evaluation rubrics.

What is useful about the rubrics is that they provide instructional supervisors with a framework for understanding classroom practice.

The full set of rubrics, in addition to two shorter versions, appears in the appendices of the book. Another thing that is helpful is that

on the rubrics themselvesthere are examples of what each of the subcategories in Domain 1 might look like in the classroom and the

type of evidence the supervisor should look for. For the first subcategory about learning goals listed above, he suggests five pieces of

teacher evidence and three of student evidence to look for. Below is an excerpt:

Design Question 1: What will I do to establish and communicate learning goals, track student progress, and celebrate success?

1. Providing Clear Learning Goals and Scales to Measure Those Goals

Teacher Evidence

!Teacher has a learning goal posted so all students can see it.

!Teacher makes reference to the goal throughout the lesson.

Student Evidence

!When asked, students can explain the learning goal for the lesson.

!When asked, students can explain how their current activities relate to the goal

This type of detailed guidance for what a supervisor should look for is notpresented for the other domains. While it makes sense that

the rubrics would more heavily weight the first domain (classroom strategies and behaviors), it would have been useful if there were

more guidance about the important topics in his other three domains: planning, reflecting, and professional growth. Furthermore,

despite the 60 subcategories, it seems there are other aspects of teaching that are missing such as use of classroom assessments,planning for high-performing students, and collaborating with colleagues.

The second and third components necessary for improving teaching cover feedback and professional development. The authors

introduce excellent ways to provide feedback from teachers videotaping themselves to walkthroughs but the chapter on feedback

serves as more of an overview than an in-depth discussion. If you need more guidance, for example on conducting walkthroughs, you

may need to consult other resources such as Carolyn Downeys The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through(2004) orInstructional

Rounds in Education(2009) by Elizabeth City and colleagues. If you need more guidance on theprocessof giving feedback, it would

be useful to read other sources as well. For example, Kim Marshall inRethinking Teacher Supervision and Evaluation(2009) suggests

providing face-to-face feedback as soon as possible and delivering it in an informal way. (Disclosure, I am currently working with

Marshall on his evaluation rubrics.) Additionally, the chapter on professional development introduces some powerful ideas from

expert videos to virtual communities but it serves more as a brief overview than a detailed how-to chapter.

The fourth component of the Marzano Model needed to develop teacher expertise includes criteria for teacher success and a plan to

achieve that success. The authors state that teachers should choose strategies and behaviors to improve (from Domain 1) and tracktheir progress using the performance levels in the rubrics. There also should be criteria for success based on student value-added

achievement. Both types of goals are necessary and teachers should include both in their professional growth plan. For example:

Value-added goal: The average gain score in third period science class will be 60th

percentile or above relative to district norms.

Domain 1 strategy/behavior goal:I will increase my skill at having students preview content to the Applying Level (3) or higher.

Most of the book focuses on supervising teachers, but the end turns to the topic of evaluation. In the US, first-year teachers are

evaluated by the same criteria as veterans. This stands in stark contrast to what the research says about becoming an expert. To

become an expert, one needs to be engaged in focused practice and receive tailored feedbackfor about 10 years. For this reason, the

authors propose that teachers be allowed to progress through different stages of development as they move toward expertise.

In concrete terms, they suggest four developmental stages for teachers: Initial Status Teacher, Professional Teacher, Mentor

Teacher, and Master Teacher. There would be different requirements for each level both in terms of the value-added student scores

andthe Marzano rubrics. For example, to reach the Professional Teacherstage, teachers would need to have scores between the 34th

and 84th

percentile on district norms, minimum scores of Developing (2) and a majority of scores of Applying (3) for Domain 1, andminimum scores of Developing (2) in Domains 2, 3, and 4. Clearly some would balk at the idea of different standards for differentteachers, including parents who knew their children were being taught by an Initial Status Teacher. However, the authors bring up

the complicated issue of how to allow for teachers to develop their expertise over time. In addition, high achieving countries like

Japan acknowledge that teachers grow and learn on the job and dont expect a master teacher performance on day one.

These five components necessary to improve teacher expertise are not easy to implement quickly. As a place to begin, the authors

suggest starting simply with Domain 1. By describing effective classroom strategies and behaviors, Domain 1 helps schools lay out a

common definition of good teaching. Some schools spend an entire year focusing just on these strategies and behaviors. I think there

is nothing more powerful than a school having a common definition of quality teaching, and for this alone, you should read the book.