Monitoring Instructional Effectiveness

There are several approaches that leadership teams take to monitor instructional effectiveness and to ensure alignment of what is being taught in classrooms to the written and tested curriculum.  Conducting focused classroom walkthroughs and analyzing interim assessment data are high-leverage activities, particularly when they include feedback and follow up.  What about lesson planning?  What information about the effectiveness the instruction or the progress of your students can be gleaned from checking teachers’ lesson plans?

Collecting and reviewing lesson plans has been a time-honored tradition among school administrators.  But is it the best strategy for improving teaching and learning?  And, for busy principals, is it the best use of your time?

Some may have strong rational for collecting lesson plans every week and a system for providing timely feedback.  But to monitor critical areas that will provide you with the information needed to track alignment and effectiveness, consider sitting in on grade level or content team meetings or collecting PLC minutes.  In doing so, leaders can monitor academic priorities and assess alignment of instruction and curriculum while promoting data analysis, lesson planning, and collaboration.