Feedback to Feed Forward: 31 Strategies to Lead Learning

Feedback that works—for leadership that makes a difference.  As a leader, you know that feedback is essential to teachers’ growth and development. But crafting the right feedback can be daunting. How do you conduct comprehensive observations, accurately analyze lessons for effectiveness, and develop high-leverage action steps that bring lasting change to teacher practices and student outcomes?  This how-to book, designed for leaders in all roles and at all experience levels, provides a dynamic yet practical leadership model focused on precisely those key tasks. Features include Comprehensive explanations of standards and descriptions of discrete core skills Explicit think-alouds, ready-to-use strategies, and field-tested lesson examples Evidence-collection notes—with templates—from live observations Feedback samples across grade levels and content areas Replicable case studies for professional learning  Simply inspecting teaching practice through observation might be easy; providing feedback that feeds forward and promotes growth is far more challenging. With this comprehensive learning tool, you’ll use feedback to make the most of your role as a leader of learning—for both teachers and students. Feedback to Feed Forward has been recognized for focusing on practices that have high effect sizes and will help you translate the groundbreaking Visible Learning research into practice. When educators use strategies that have high effects (greater than 0.40), they can accelerate student achievement. The power of the Visible Learning research lies in helping educators understand which factors have the highest impact on student achievement so that educators can begin making strategic decisions based on evidence that will utilize their time, energy, and resources to the best extent possible. The Visible Learning research is based on Professor John Hattie’s unmatched meta-analysis of more than 1,600 research reviews comprising 95,000 studies, involving more than 300 million students—the world’s largest evidence base on what works best in schools to improve student learning. From that research, Dr. Hattie identified more than 250 factors that have an impact on student achievement.  

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgments About the Authors Chapter 1: What does it mean to lead learning? Finding Time to Lead Learning Rethinking Evaluation Leading Change Through Educator Evaluation Core Assumptions About Current Practice Feedback as the Common Thread A Shift From Summary to Analysis Core Skills for Observation and Feedback What’s Ahead? Chapter 2: How can you use an instructional framework to improve observation and feedback practices? Skill Set for Building Understanding of a Framework Deconstructing Your Framework Unpacking Expectations Using a Feedback Frame Final Thoughts Chapter 3: How can you collect evidence in the classroom to improve feedback? Skill Set for Collecting Evidence Bias in Observation Identifying Types of Data Evidence Collection: The Basics Evidence Collection: Student Engagement and Learning Using a Balance of Evidence to Feed Forward Final Thoughts Chapter 4: How can you determine effectiveness of instruction and a teacher’s impact on learners? Skill Set for Determining Effectiveness Using Your Evidence to Analyze Effectiveness Understanding What We Are Analyzing Analyzing Engagement Influences on Engagement and Learning Final Thoughts Chapter 5: How can you determine a teacher’s areas of instructional strength and growth? Skill Set for Determining Areas of Strength and Growth What Teachers Need to Know Using Analysis Determining Areas of Strength and Growth Citing Areas of Strength and Growth Understanding Research-Based Strategies Using Research-Based Strategies in Feedback Pulling It All Together Final Thoughts Chapter 6: How can your feedback feed forward? Skill Set for Developing Objective Feedback Bias in Feedback Increasing Objectivity Feedback to Feed Forward Skill Set for Developing Feedback as a Learning Tool Defining “Actionable” Next Steps Developing Action Steps Prioritizing Next Steps Developing Reflective Practices Pulling It All Together Final Thoughts Chapter 7: What professional learning builds your capacity to lead learning? What’s Next? The Current Approach Essentials of Effective Professional Learning Design Building a New Approach Professional Learning Designs in Action Final Thoughts and Beyond Strategies List Tables and Figures List References Index

About the Author :
Amy Tepper has served as a teacher, administrator, and program director in various K-12 settings and startups to include virtual, homeschool, blended, and public schools. She held the position of Executive Director of a Sylvan Learning Center, opened an alternative 6th-12th school in Okaloosa County, FL, and later was actively engaged in Florida high school redesign and career education reform, providing technical assistance across the state. Amy had the opportunity to collaborate with a team of parents to develop the Ohana Institute, an innovative blended school, focused on global citizenship and discovery learning, serving as Director in its first year. As a consultant, she provided instructional and administrative coaching at an international school in Panama, before joining ReVISION Learning Partnership in 2013. Amy has since completed countless classroom observations through work as a peer validator evaluating practices in Newark and New Haven schools, and in providing embedded, ongoing support for instructional leaders and teachers in the areas of high quality observation, feedback, and teaching and learning across Connecticut. Patrick Flynn has worked as a teacher, teacher leader, curriculum director, and executive program director in K-12 settings in over eleven different states. As the Executive Director of High Schools for Edison Schools and the Chief Academic Officer for Great Schools Workshop in Sacramento, CA, Patrick worked with building and district administrations in nine states to implement systemic high school reform. He has provided professional learning in the areas of transformational leadership, performance management systems, standards-driven instruction, and data-driven decision-making. Patrick is Founder and Executive Director of ReVISION Learning Partnership, providing professional development and support to districts and educational organizations in CT, NY, NJ, and LA since 2010. He has led several school improvement initiatives in rural and urban settings and internationally in the United Arab Emirates with the Abu Dhabi Education Council. He has presented nationally and internationally, including as a keynote speaker at the Forum on Big Data at the Tianjin University of Technology, in Tianjin, China. ReVISION Learning is highly sought after for its leadership in providing the highest quality professional learning opportunities for teacher, administrators, and district personnel.

Review :
Leading learning meets specificity! Tepper and Flynn take the most powerful strategy for change we know—feedback— and comprehensively break it down into themes that are well-grounded in theory and practice. Treat Feedback to Feed Forward as a master cookbook. Look for what you need and delve into it with a connoisseur’s appetite. Teachers are starving for effective feedback – feedback they can actually use to take next steps in their teaching and their students’ learning.  Grounded in research and the authors’ years of experience, Feedback to Feed Forward provides an indispensable guide for instructional leaders in how to use an instructional framework, collect a variety of evidence, and analyze impact on student learning — all in the service of providing teachers with objective, growth-oriented, and actionable feedback.  Practical and accessible, the book combines a compelling vision for instructional leadership focused on student learning with authentic examples, data collection tools, and concrete strategies that anyone who supports teachers, regardless of the level expertise, can apply immediately to their own practice. Feedback to Feed Forward: 31 Strategies to Lead Learning is a must-read for practicing school leaders whose roles have rapidly evolved over the past several years.  Tepper and Flynn have masterfully unpacked the essential elements of effective supervision and evaluation that supports teachers in improving their practice. In this practical guidebook, the authors focus on the practices of instructional leaders who have become leaders of learning in their schools. As the result of years of work supporting schools and districts who have struggled to implement new systems of educator evaluation, they have seen firsthand the need to support school leaders in developing a new set of core skills and strategies to confidently and effectively lead learning in their schools. In order for school leaders to feel comfortable immersing themselves in teaching and learning every day, they need on-going professional learning and support to develop the skills for effective observation and direct feedback that promotes growth, improves teacher practice, and results in student learning. I love how versatile and practical the content of this book is! No matter what evaluation rubric or method you use – this process of data collection, connecting the data to the rubric, and setting a course of action leads to meaningful feedback that teachers can immediately implement in their classroom practice. Tepper and Flynn create a system of support to help administrators through every stage of the evaluation process. Whether you’re new to the process, or have been conducting evaluations for years, the reader connects to where they are and can easily determine next steps for themselves throughout every chapter. The authors provide guidance that supports leaders in fostering a climate that cultivates a collaborative and reflective approach to growth and development through the evaluation process. Feedback to Feed Forward: 31 Strategies to Lead Learning gives me a whole new way to think about classroom observation by elevating this very common practice to a strategic, purposeful, and scientific professional development tool!  It is a book so full of strategies, information, guidance, and tips to improve my work that I will read, re-read, and study it continually as I hone my skills of observation and feedback to promote teacher growth. With regard to my work as an observer of classroom instruction, this book enabled me to answer the three highlighted questions, "Where am I going? How am I going?  Where to next?" Tepper and Flynn provide a clear, step-by-step way to think about and perform observations for the purpose of defining what I am actually looking for, seeking evidence of it while in the room and using that evidence to craft actionable feedback for a teacher. One of the best books I have read regarding evaluation practices. In my almost 13 years as an administrator I have always known that feedback and discussion after the evaluation was important but now I have a better understanding of how to address very specific aspects. Looking at the big picture in a way that breaks it down into four categories was incredibly helpful. While it feels overwhelming to think about doing all of these things in one evaluation since it is a new approach for me, now that I know better, I must do better. I have been practicing some of my learning while reading the book with one of my teachers and the first time I went in, I didn′t know who was more nervous, her or me! However, there was a sense of excitement knowing that I was gaining skills to be a better evaluator which in turn will produce better teachers and more engaged learners! This is a process that will take time but taking the first step has opened a whole new door for me in improving my evaluation process! Tepper and Flynn, and the principles that they so comprehensively elaborate upon in this book, are most responsible for my professional growth as a teacher and leader. These tenets have built my leadership capacity on a myriad of levels: from effectively collecting evidence during a classroom observation to giving effective and actionable feedback to teachers. This text will quickly rise to the top and become a tour de force in the world of educational leadership.