PJ Caposey is a dynamic speaker and a transformational leader and educator. PJ began his career as an award-winning teacher in the inner-city of Chicago and has subsequently led significant change in every administrative post he has held. PJ became a principal at 28 and within three years was able to lead a small-town/rural school historically achieving near the bottom of its county to multiple national recognitions. After four years, PJ moved to his current district, Meridian CUSD 223, where he is in his eighth year as superintendent and has led a similar turnaround leading to multiple national recognitions for multiple different efforts. PJ has written 8 books for various publishers and his work has been published online for sites such as ASCD, Edutopia, NPR, the Washington Post, and the Huffington Post. He works in the Education Department of two universities and in a myriad of capacities with the Illinois Principal’s Association including Principal Coach and author of the first complete stack of MicroCredentials offered in Illinois.

• Why did you go into Education
• Diagnosed with cancer at 17.
• Teachers weren’t vital to me being successful until they were! Why (almost) everyone does teacher evaluation wrong and why it is one of the worst ROI processes in schools!
• I l love teacher evaluation when I am performing it.
• Resource intensive - seldom leads to
• Teachers growth and success wasn’t dependent on the evaluation process
• Second thing it does is sort teachers.
* Total waste of time because almost everyone is proficient. The process is too long to get rid of someone (Hire slow, fire fast is how the business world recommends. Education is hire fast (usually 1 interview) and fire slow. Evaluation process can take easily a full calendar year to fire someone). 
• Veteran Teachers are more often insubordinate than ineffective.
• unwilling to change at the macro, then we can do something to change at the micro
• If we are waiting holistically to have the conversation during the evaluation process, we’ve lost the opportunity.
• Evaluation audit and assessment.
• Suggestions for improvement are too often copy and pasted.
• That indicates a depth of knowledge on an evaluator’s part.
• Pre-conference is the most effective way to focus on growth.
• Pre-conference should be focused on the why questions.
• If we don’t get to the why level, then our feedback will never lead to growth.
• Ken Scott driver’s ed teacher
• What is the objective
• how will they show mastery
• why should they know it.
• It’s really hard to bring teachers to observe each other.
• Instructional coaching.
• Any feedback that is trusted and is about growth is more valuable than feedback that is about raking and sorting.
• If we don’t create
• How to be a transformative principal? Shawn Achor - moving the goalposts - what does success look like? Encourage teachers to give themselves grace. You’re playing a game that doesn’t end in 2021! 
* Since everyone is already proficient, we might as well let teachers make their own goals and be in charge of their evaluation (much like we want kids to be in charge of their learning). 
* Principals observing teachers is fine, but the emphasis should be on teachers observing each other. Knowledge of instruction gets much better when you can see what other teachers are doing. 


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Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.

John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.

Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles:

• Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
• Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
• Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
• The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
• Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard

John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL, and Renaissance Learning:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools...