Beyond the Scoreboard

The key driver of teacher development isn't accurate measurement of teachers' performance. It's guidance on exactly how to improve.

Michelle is a first-year English teacher at Vailsburg Middle School, a public school in Newark, New Jersey. Michelle is dedicated, caring, energetic, and insightful—exactly the sort of person we want to keep in our profession.

This year, I had the chance to watch Michelle and her principal, Serena Savarirayan, meet for their weekly debriefing of Michelle's teaching. Serena began by praising Michelle's progress toward the goal they'd set at the last meeting—adding more wait time after asking challenging vocabulary questions. As she spoke, Serena updated the "Progress Toward Goals" section of the spreadsheet she uses to track her observations, noting that Michelle was progressing toward this target.

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