The Challenge
The Baltimore City Public Schools has a committed staff of educators throughout its central office and 200 schools. In a system this size, the district needed to ensure that all educators had a common understanding of clear instructional expectations that would lead to student achievement.
The Baltimore City Schools wanted to retain their sense of autonomy while benefiting from a structured system of sharing best practices, guiding instructional improvement, and measuring effectiveness.
They envisioned a framework that identified expectations for teachers, which would be the foundation for classroom observations, data collection on teaching, coaching and instructional development, and guidelines for professional conversations.
"Teachers are able to excel as the authority in their classrooms while operating with a sense of clarity regarding the district’s expectations."
The Solution
Over the course of a year, a working group, comprised mostly of teachers but also including various other stakeholders, sat side-by-side with Insight consultants and developed an Instructional Framework from scratch.
The Insight team facilitated focus groups to ensure a broad representation of voices—from teachers to principals to district partners—were informing the identification of “key actions,” or standards of practice that are exhibited by the city’s most effective teachers.
This process was replicated to develop a rubric that describes what these practices look like at four different levels of efficacy.
In addition to developing a customized framework and rubric, Insight worked closely with district leaders to develop a thoughtful, comprehensive implementation plan that staged the roll out of the framework and rubric throughout the district to ensure long-term success.
The Results
Building Capacity:
Driving Towards a Common Language:
Clarifying Roles and Responsibilities: