Field Trip Podcast

No Child Left Behind… Race to the Top… the Every Student Succeeds Act. All have had significant impact on teacher evaluations. Over time, have such laws led to an increase in the quality of teaching our schools?

This year the Frontline Research & Learning Institute looked at the data around teacher evaluation scores. We speak with Sarah Silverman, Ph.D., of Whiteboard Advisors, the firm that partnered with Frontline to analyze the data and the author of the report, “Bending Toward Accuracy: How Teacher Evaluations Are Evolving.” We look at:

• Teacher evaluation scores over a 5-year period and where the data comes from
• Why those scores indicate that teacher evaluations have gotten more accurate over time
• What you can do with teacher evaluation data in your own schools to foster growth in teaching

Read the full report: “Bending Toward Accuracy: How Teacher Evaluations Are Evolving”

In the early 2000’s, Greece Central School District in New York had 25 full-time mentor teachers. After the 2008 financial crisis, that number dropped down to one, plus a handful of part-time staff.

Now, the program is thriving again. Director of Professional Learning Marguerite Dimgba shares why she’s so proud of their teacher mentoring, how it fits into their broader professional learning program, and why this form of job-embedded professional learning is so crucial.

• How Greece Central offers individualized professional learning for every teacher that’s also aligned to the district’s strategic goals
• How they decide the areas in which they focus professional learning
• Tips for any district that wants to take its teacher mentoring program to the next level

Cited Sources:

Ingersoll, R. M., Merrill, E., Stuckey, D., & Collins, G. (n.d.). Seven Trends: The Transformation of the Teaching Force – Updated October 2018. Retrieved November 6, 2019, from https://repository.upenn.edu/cpre_researchreports/108/.

Primary Sources: 2012: America's Teachers on the Teaching Profession. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com/primarysources/pdfs/Gates2012_full.pdf

Related Content

• VIDEO: Best Practices in Professional Learning: Greece Central School District
• “Professional Development Program Evaluation for the Win! How to Sleep Well at Night Knowing Your Professional Learning is Effective”

What is the single biggest thing that school leaders can do to impact student outcomes? According to Ted Neitzke, it’s to create the conditions that enable everybody in the school system to take on leadership roles.

Ted is the CEO of CESA 6, a consortium that serves school districts in Wisconsin. He is also the host of the Smart Thinking Podcast. Today, Ted shares what he means by leadership, why it’s so important that every employee has the chance to pursue leadership opportunities, and he shares several extremely practical ways leaders can improve schools and help others do the same.

• How to recognize people and create processes that will set the stage for people to take on the mantle of leadership
• Principles of improvement to apply in your school system
• Quick and easy practices that can have a huge positive impact on meetings and working relationships

You may also enjoy:

White Paper: “The Power of Failure: Encouraging Teachers to Take Risks in a Risk-free Environment.” Download Now.

As a parent, learning your child has a learning disability or other special need comes with a whirlwind of emotion. “Who will take care of them when I’m not here? How will I make sure they get the supports they need?” Fear and anxiety rear their heads. Everything you pictured about your child’s life is suddenly in doubt – including what school might look like.

Today, we’re speaking with three current and former administrators – and for two of them, parents of a student with special needs – to step into the shoes of these families.

• What parents go through when their child receives a diagnosis
• How these challenges are especially compounded when a family is new to the educational system in the United States
• Why school and district leaders need to be thinking about this issue – not only to avoid litigation, but to achieve more productive outcomes
• Strategies for supporting families as they navigate their new reality

DIG DEEPER
We think you’ll enjoy this article, too! 5 Strategies to Improve the IEP Process with Parent Participation

Paul O’Neill and Dennis Griffin, Jr. are principals in schools hundreds of miles apart — yet they regularly encourage and challenge each other through #EduGladiators, an online community of learners.

The principal’s world includes plenty of conflict. And while conflict is never easy, it’s not always bad. Today, Paul and Dennis talk about leadership and conflict, and how when conflict arises, school leaders have a huge opportunity to encourage growth, impact school culture, and create a better educational landscape for students.

• How leaders can channel conflict toward productive outcomes
• What happens when leaders simply try to avoid conflict
• Fostering transparency and building relationships that lead to positive growth
• How to deal with conflict when taking leadership at a new school
• Big, burning questions to wrestle with as leaders

For further reading:

Get our eBook: “The Power of Failure — Encouraging Teachers to Take Risks in a Risk-Free Environment.” A look at helping teachers develop a growth mindset.

Adam Brown, Ed.D. is an assistant principal for Virginia Beach City Public Schools. As a new teacher, there were days he wanted to call it quits — but he had great support, and got through those tough times. And his research into what causes teacher burnout is packed with insights for teachers, leaders and mentors.

Today, we speak with Dr. Brown and with Basil Marin, also an assistant principal, about their experiences dealing with teacher burnout and what administrators can do to fight it in their schools and give teachers the support they need — whether they’re new teachers or have been in the classroom for decades.

Dig Deeper

Sheila B. Robinson, Ed.D., has spent decades in education, as a classroom teacher as well as working with adults in professional learning and program evaluation. Today, we ask Sheila about:

Take a Deeper Dive:

Ian? He’s of Generation X. Erin is squarely in the Millennial camp. Today on Field Trip, they explore the differences between the five different generations currently represented in the labor force: Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z.

This interview with Ian Halperin, Executive Director of Community Relations at Wylie ISD and Erin McCann, Director of Communications and Public Relations at Crandall ISD is one that every education leader should hear.

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Garland Independent School District serves thousands of dyslexic students. Dyslexia is a learning disability that has profound effects on students as they move through high school — so identifying students early on is incredibly helpful. But how do you do that?

In this podcast we find out how Garland ISD is empowering people to work across departments, train teachers to become dyslexia therapists, and help teams working with special education and dyslexic students to work together.

Teaching today is more demanding than ever — and whether or not that leads to stress and exhaustion is often up to the principal and how he or she leads the building.

Today we speak with Dr. Brad Owen, Assistant Superintendent of Burkburnett Independent School District in Texas, about his research into teacher stress, faculty trust in the principal, and what principals can do to increase that trust and reduce that stress.

Further reading on a growth mindset: