Michael Copland, Associate Professor

1
Assessing Instructional Leadership
ExpertiseICSEI Conference 2009 Concurent
Session

• Michael Copland, Associate Professor
• Educational Leadership Policy Studies
• College of Education
• University of Washington

Dina Blum, Project Director Center for
Educational Leadership College of
Education University of Washington www.k-12leaders
hip.org
2
Improving Instruction Expert vs. Hierarchical
Authority

• Traditional paths to leadership roles rooted in
  established education hierarchy
• Two decade shift to instructional leadership
  requires expert basis for instructional
  improvement work
• We asked What is the nature of expert practice
  in observing instruction and planning feedback to
  teachers?

3
Mission

• The Center for Educational Leadership (CEL)
  is dedicated to eliminating the achievement gap
  that continues to divide our nations children
  along the lines of race, class and language. CEL
  believes the nexus for eliminating the gap lies
  in the development of leadership
  capacity?specifically nurturing the will to act
  on behalf of the most underserved students while
  increasing leadership knowledge and skill to
  dramatically improve the quality of instruction.

4
Big ideas behind our theory of action

• If kids are not learning, they are not being
  afforded powerful
• learning opportunities

• If teachers are not affording students powerful
  learning opportunities,
• principals and district leaders are not doing
  what they need to in order to
• equip and support teachers with the requisite
  knowledge and skills

• Teaching is a very sophisticated process, and
  teachers are capable of
• making important instructional decisions with
  effective professional
• development

• In order to facilitate powerful instruction,
  teaching practice must move
• from private to public

• Reciprocal accountability must be in place to
  ensure high learning at
• all levels

• You cannot lead what you dont know

5
CELs District Partnerships
CEL partnerships are built on the belief that
instruction will improve when leaders

• Recognize and understand powerful instruction
• Guide and lead professional development around
  powerful instruction
• Target and align resources to support
  instructional improvement
• Engage in ongoing problem solving and long range
  capacity building

6
5D Instructional Leadership Assessment

• UW-Center for Ed Leadership

7
CEL Lesson Analysis Rubric

• Empirical and experiential research effort led to
  development of rubric framework
• Rubric captures 13 dimensions of what expert
  observers of teaching and learning pay attention
  to
• Rubric differentiates novice from expert practice
  along each of the 13 dimensions

8
5 Dimensions of Teaching Learning
9
Purpose
An instructional leader considers How lesson
connects to grade-level standards (e.g. GLE, ELD,
NCTM, NCTE) whether stated or not stated, to
ensure equity of outcomes for all students How
purpose of lesson connects to transferable
knowledge/skill How teaching decisions align with
purpose Whether lesson purpose is appropriate for
students based on evidence of student
learning How lesson links to broader purpose
(social justice, problem-solving, citizenship,
independence, quality of life) How the purpose of
this lesson connected to other lessons (previous
and future)
10
Student Engagement

• An instructional leader considers
• Who is doing the work (reading, thinking,
  writing, meaning making) and what is the
  intellectual substance of that work
• Strategies that facilitate participation and
  meaning making by all students (e.g., small group
  work, partner talk, writing, questioning, etc.)
• Level of student talk in light of understanding
  the role of talk in meaning making, language
  development and as a tool for assessment

11
1 A novice instructional leader
Levels of Expertise

• does not notice or think about key concepts when
  observing classroom practice
• conveys obvious misconceptions about or misuses
  key concepts
• makes gross judgments without any supporting
  evidence whatsoever

12
2 An emerging instructional leader
Levels of Expertise

• recounts what transpired in the lesson
• identifies, mentions, or names something related
  to key concepts without any elaboration
• uses relevant and appropriate terminology without
  clear evidence of understanding
• may ask questions without elaboration as to why
  (mimicking questions, perhaps, memorized from
  previous professional development)
• may offer directives for improvement without
  justification or elaboration

13
3 A developing instructional leader
Levels of Expertise

• discusses and/or considers key concepts with
  enough specificity to demonstrate basic
  understanding
• elaborates responses with specific
  examples/evidence from the observed lesson
• expresses wonder or questions about observations
  (e.g., what is behind teaching decisions)
• offers alternatives to teaching decisions or
  suggests ways to improve with some specificity
  and/or elaboration
• demonstrates basic understanding that teaching
  decisions impact student learning and how this
  occurs

14
4 An expert instructional leader
Levels of Expertise

• demonstrates all the markers of category 3 plus
• identifies and critically analyzes more layers of
  complexity in the observed lesson
• conveys clear ideas/vision for powerful and
  equitable teaching and learning
• communicates and supports ideas with richer
  detail to illustrate evidence/examples from the
  observed lesson
• demonstrates pedagogical content knowledge
  relevant to the specific content area of lesson
• models an inquiry stance
• analytically unpacks teaching decisions and
  offers possible theories
• links questions and analysis directly to evidence
  of student learning

15
Lesson Analysis Study

• Assessing growth in leaders ability to observe
  for powerful teaching and learning and plan
  feedback to teachers
• Three data collection points baseline, Year 1,
  Year 2.
• Study design Watch lesson video, script
  responses to three questions, narrative analysis
  using lesson observation rubric

16
Developing leaders ability to analyze
instruction and plan feedback

• What do you notice about teaching and learning in
  this classroom?
• Based on your response to the first question,
  describe the follow-up conversation you would
  have with this teacher.
• Imagine that the teacher you just observed is a
  member of your current school staff. What
  implications for professional development, if
  any, does this observation suggest?

17
Dimensions of Instruction
Norwalk Means Time 1 2
18
Dimensions of Instruction
19
Dimensions of Instruction
20
Dimensions of Instruction
21
(No Transcript)
22
What we are learning

• The purpose of leadership is the improvement of
  instruction, regardless of role
• Leadership for instructional improvement cannot
  be outsourced solely to principals and/or
  teachers
• You cannot lead what you dont know
• The improvement of instructional leadership rests
  on deepening ones content knowledge. Leaders
  deepened content knowledge is the foundation from
  which they support teachers with more powerful
  professional development

23
Thanks for coming!
Dina Blum, Project Director Center for
Educational Leadership College of
Education University of Washington www.k-12leaders
hip.org
Michael Copland, Associate Professor Educational
Leadership Policy Studies College of
Education University of Washington mcopland_at_u.wash
ington.edu