Classroom observation tools (COTs) are used to understand and improve the quality of teaching practices, ultimately for better student learning outcomes. While COTs are widely used globally, there is limited research on how they are adapted to fit different educational contexts. Moreover, little is known about how lesson observers and teachers are…

While noncompliance is a concerning challenging behavior and commonly reported by educators, its measurement is likely to be invalid and inaccurate given the subjectivity of the operational definition. Engagement is offered as a more valid, accurate measurement that may provide data regarding the amount of instruction accessed by the student. In…

This tool was developed to assist school leaders in observing specific research-based practices during literacy instruction in grade 4-12 classrooms and students' independent use or application of those practices. The tool aims to help school leaders conduct brief and frequent walkthroughs throughout the school year. The tool consists of three…

School districts face the problem of superintendents who have several demanding, fragmented, and competing roles and who lack the knowledge of learning theory and the skills for collaborative instructional leadership needed to guide instructional improvement. The purpose of this single case study was to address the instructional leadership role of…

"Exploring Best Practices in Trauma-Informed Teaching and Therapeutic Approaches in Art Education" will address how applying trauma-informed teaching and therapeutic approaches within the art classroom will help students form positive behaviors and coping mechanisms to deal with trauma. Multiple art educators from varying backgrounds and…

In this study, we examined the scoring and generalizability assumptions of an explicit instruction (EI) special education teacher observation protocol using many-faceted Rasch measurement (MFRM). Video observations of classroom instruction from 48 special education teachers across four states were collected. External raters (n = 20) were trained…

Thin slices ratings (i.e., ratings based on first impressions) have yielded intriguingly accurate results in various domains. Among other, researcher have applied the thin slices technique to assess instructional quality, showing that teacher-student interactions can be reliably inferred by just very short snippets of classroom instruction. The…

This study aimed to develop a K-12 classroom observation protocol to assess K-12 teachers' implementation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) integration. The intended purpose of the observation protocol is for researchers to examine how K-12 teachers implement the STEM integrated curriculum. Based on research on STEM…

In this article we detail a research study using the Instructional Quality Assessment (IQA) Rubrics (Boston, 2012) as the frame for a professional development with mathematics teachers in grades 3-8. We wanted to create a professional development around a tool that was typically used in research as a way to observe teachers, as a tool to use with…

Institutions of higher education have a primary mission of providing a quality eduation to all of its student, including students with disabilities. This practice brief describes tools used in an innovative approach to teaching observations that were designed to improve access for students with disabilities through inclusive teaching strategies,…

Teacher observations are being used for high-stakes purposes in states across the country, and administrators often serve as raters in teacher evaluation systems. This paper examines how the cognitive aspects of administrators' use of an observation instrument, a modified version of Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching, interact with the…

This appendix augments a report that updates 2013 guidance to school district leaders and their partners across the country who are interested in launching summer learning programs or improving established ones. In that report, the authors present recommendations based on evaluations, conducted between 2011 and 2016, of summer programs in five…

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has created an open-access classroom observation tool based on research conducted for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's (DFAT) Teacher Development Multi-Year Study Series, which studied teaching practices in Timor-Leste, Vanuatu and Lao PDR (see…

In this article, we present a revised version of the active learning classroom observation tool (ALCOT), designed in 2015, to support instructor reflection on instructional approaches applied within active learning classrooms. The design of active learning classrooms and teaching approaches within them have changed significantly since the initial…

Effective mentors set clear expectations for their work with the teachers they support. This is a critical step in the process of building trust between mentor and mentee, and it is never more important than when mentors conduct observations of teachers as they engage in classroom instruction. With much teaching now occurring online, mentoring is…