In her April contribution to Education Week, Charlotte Danielson reminds us we have built a system of teacher evaluation that is focused on remediation rather than growth, even though it is generally agreed less than 10 percent of teachers need remediation. She makes a case for building a new system focused on professional learning, describing four characteristics of effective learning cultures.

1) Professional learning must create active intellectual engagement. She describes these as self-assessment, reflection on practice and professional conversation.

2) Trust is foundational for learning.

3) Both challenge and support are critical to professional inquiry.

4) Teachers learn more from working with colleagues on problems of practice rather than taking workshops.

As you examine evaluation processes in your system, how closely do they align with the four characteristics described by Danielson? What might be some ways that using Cognitive CoachingSM for professional conversations would create richer alignment with the four characteristics? How do PLCs using Adaptive Schools strategies support the characteristics?

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/04/20/charlotte-danielson-on-rethinking-teacher-evaluation.html