Today's blog is co-authored with Deb Masters and Peter DeWitt. Deb is the Director of Visible Learning Plus in Auckland, New Zealand.

Leaders have an enormous opportunity every day to make either a positive...or negative impact in a school building. Finding the right leaders is vital to improving student learning, but also to fight the negative rhetoric going on about schools by people who don't spend nearly enough time in schools.  

Teacher observation is one area for a leader that offers an opportunity to share their instructional wisdom, as well as learn a great deal about instruction from teachers and students. Unfortunately, many leaders take the path of least resistance in an observation.

Not true? Think about your own observations. Were they helpful? Did they offer the feedback you needed? Or did they just focus on how great you were and how well your students behaved?

Observations should be a time when leaders offer effective feedback to the best and worst teachers, and all the other ones in between. Outstanding teachers shouldn't just get a pat on the back...they should be provided feedback on how they can keep improving. 

That's where SOLO Taxonomy can be helpful. 

SOLO Taxonomy For Leaders?

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