Keeping an Instructional Focus

The reflective questions that follow the list of six strategies for staying focused can be a catalyst to a conversation in your mentoring partnership.

• Communicate a clear vision and mission.
• Have a clear administrative structure.
• Articulate a shared vision for quality instruction (an instructional framework can support this—e.g. Danielson, Marzano, Iowa Instructional Framework). Does everyone understand what constitutes quality instruction?
• Foster a coaching culture to model for all assistant principals and instructional coaches.
• Know and understand the key data of your school, such as attendance data for teachers and students, behavior data, graduation rates, and other information.
• Create a strong, focused professional development plan for teachers.

Reflective questions related to the instructional focus of your building:

1. What is the instructional vision and mission of our school?
2. Where are our building priorities? What story do our walls, entrances, trophy cases, hallways, offices, classrooms, etc. say about what is important to us and where we focus our attention?
3. How do we celebrate high-achieving teachers and students?
4. Are we all on the same page with regard to what quality instruction looks like? (Do assistant/associate principals, deans, and instructional coaches know what the principal's expectations are regarding quality instruction?
5. Do we have a walk-through tool that is grounded in a rubric to support an instructional focus?
6. Have we been trained in a coaching model (Jim Knight, Steve Barkley, Diane Sweeney, cognitive coaching, etc.) to ensure we are inspecting what we expect?
7. Do we know how our students are performing regarding course-passing data and state assessments?
8. Is there a belief that good instruction leads to higher student outcomes?
9. Do we have an ongoing professional development program and a way to determine its effect?

Read the full article