If you’re a school administrator, chances are you have already started your teacher observations. You have a few observations to write up, more classrooms to visit, and a growing number of other things competing for your attention. I remember those days as a principal, the satisfaction of checking another observation off my list and the frustration of realizing how quickly that list grew again.
In Michigan, the law requires us to observe teachers and provide feedback. But it also speaks to a fundamental leadership opportunity: developing teachers through constructive feedback, coaching, instructional support and professional development.
If we are already required to invest this much time and energy in the work, how can we make it one of the most meaningful things we do as instructional leaders?
Compliance gets us into the classroom. What we do once we get there is up to us.
Position vs. Disposition
Our position gives us the authority to observe, evaluate and provide feedback to teachers. Every time we walk into a classroom, our position walks in with us. But it doesn’t have to define the nature of our relationship.
In his recent article, Confidence Has a Companion: Curiosity Makes Confidence Wiser, my colleague Colin Ripmaster explores how effective leaders balance confidence in their judgment with curiosity about what they might be missing.
There is an important lesson here. We can enter a classroom to determine how well a teacher is doing, or we can enter genuinely curious about their practice and invested in their growth. Our responsibilities haven’t changed, but the relationship we create can change considerably.
Our position makes us the evaluator. Our disposition can make us a partner in learning.
Three Stances for Instructional Leadership
How we approach our work with teachers is grounded in three interconnected leadership stances.
A strength-based stance begins with understanding what a teacher already knows and can do. Rather than simply identifying the gap between current and desired practice, we name specific strengths, help the teacher identify a meaningful next step, and support them in taking ownership of their growth. That strength-based affirmation isn’t a compliment. It’s confidence and competence building.
An inquiry-based stance challenges us to seek to understand before we judge. Imagine observing a science lesson where four students contribute to a discussion. Before concluding that the teacher needs to increase participation, what might we learn by asking why those students were selected and what their responses revealed about their understanding?
Have that conversation before analyzing the evidence and providing feedback. We are not asking questions because we want the teacher to arrive at our conclusion. We are asking because their answers might change ours.
An equity-based stance challenges us to examine our own assumptions and consider whose learning we might overlook. In that same science classroom, what do we know about the students whose thinking we didn’t hear? It also means maintaining high expectations for every teacher while recognizing that the support each needs to grow may look different.
Let the Evidence Do the Work
These three stances come together when we ground our feedback in evidence of practice rather than our opinions about practice.
Instead of telling a teacher, “Great lesson! I’d love to see more participation,” name what the teacher did, what students said or did in response, and what that reveals about their learning.
The evidence should drive the conversation. The framework should inform our interpretation. Our opinions, preferences and impressions should not substitute for either.
When feedback connects to a teacher’s areas of focus, it becomes part of an ongoing process of learning, intentional practice and growth.
Want to see what this looks like in practice? Read the extended article, which follows a science teacher and principal through observation, inquiry, evidence analysis and feedback that leads to meaningful changes in instructional practice.
A Leadership Practice
Before your next observation, revisit the teacher’s areas of focus. Collect evidence. Ask a genuine question to better understand their thinking before you analyze their practice. Then, help the teacher identify a strength to build upon, a meaningful next step and what progress might look like.
We don’t need a different evaluation framework to begin doing this work differently. We need to be more intentional about the work we are already doing.
The measure of our success as instructional leaders isn’t the number of observations we complete. It’s what our teachers and students are able to do as a result of our work.