Cultivating skills and dispositions for evaluating colleagues
Your team has already designed its evaluation processes. Now it’s time to design a process to educate current and future team members about how the evaluation process works and the reasons behind its design. Team members will also need to learn and practice the skills and dispositions necessary to mentor, coach, and evaluate colleagues.
The Norming stage is a good time to engage in professional development for this purpose. A healthy team culture—and ultimately the school’s performance—rely on your team’s ability to encourage individual improvement in constructive ways.
Resources
Cultivating skills and dispositions for evaluating colleagues
Cognitive Coaching: A Foundation for Renaissance Schools
Book. Arthur L. Costa and Robert J. Garmston developed Cognitive Coaching, a model that supports individuals and organizations in becoming self-directed, self-managing, self-monitoring, and self-modifying.
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes are High
Book and video. Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler share strategies for engaging in important conversations in ways that support organizational success.
Evaluation: Discussion Starters for Creating a Teacher-Powered School
Discussion Starters. Teams starting or improving a teacher-powered school should use this resource to explore how to design an evaluation process that considers teachers' instructional practice as well as their other abilities. This resource also includes tips for training teachers to conduct evaluations.
UCLA Center X: Peer Coaching Resources
Website. Teachers who are learning about peer coaching reflect on the process of learning to be the coach and learning to be the observed teacher.
Using Data to Learn: From Multiple Measures to Systems of Support
Report. Jarod Kawasaki and Soo Jin Choi document how the teacher-powered UCLA Community School created its own Professional Learning Action Team, in part to develop a multiple measures teacher evaluation system that would be more rigorous and comprehensive. Kawasaki and Choi also situate the story in a broader research context.