Resources
Campus Walkthrough
What is Campus Walkthrough
Campus leadership team conducts short (10-15 minute) observations across many or all classrooms on a campus.
When is this useful?
- Full campus walkthroughs can provide leadership teams a view of strengths and areas of weakness in instructional practices across their entire campus, especially if appraisers score teachers they don’t normally observe.
- This protocol can help increase alignment across a campus’ leadership team.
Before the observation:
- Determine the purpose of the walkthrough, which teachers you will observe (if not all), and which rubric dimensions you will observe for (if not all).
- Schedule the walkthrough.
- Inform teachers of the walkthrough including what the leadership team intends to do with the observation data they collect. Alternatively, ask teachers to volunteer to be part of the walkthrough and give them the choice of whether ratings would be considered formal ratings.
- Arrange for at least one district leader to join as an outside observer.
- Clear each leader’s schedule to allow for at least a half-day of uninterrupted time (barring emergencies that may come up during that time).
- Create a walkthrough schedule to ensure that appraiser teams are able to visit as many teachers as possible during the allotted time and avoid going into classrooms when a teacher is not teaching. It is recommended to divide the classrooms between the teams in order to observe as many teachers as possible.
- If there are more than three appraisers participating in the walkthrough, divide the appraisers into pairs. Assign one appraiser in each group to be the timekeeper so that the group can stay on schedule.
| Time (Minutes) | Process |
|---|---|
| 0-15 | Meet as a group to review the procedure, schedule, and groupings.Review the purpose of this walkthrough.Encourage appraisers to leave notes of praise in each teacher’s classroom. |
| 15-135 | Appraiser team(s) follow the observation schedule, spending 10-15 minutes in each classroom.In each classroom, collect evidence and assign evidence to each dimension.After 10-15 minutes inside the classroom, appraiser teams step into the hallway and finish jotting down and organizing evidence. |
| 135-165 | Appraisers use the evidence collected to assign ratings to each teacher.Appraiser team(s) reconvene and compile ratings into one data spreadsheet.Group teachers in a way that will support the leadership team’s analysis of the data. For example, decide whether to group the teachers by subject, grade level, etc. |
| 165-180 | Once the data has been compiled, take 10-15 minutes to independently review the data for trends. |
| 180-240 | As a team, discuss trends that you see in the data:Where are the strengths across the school?Where are there areas of weakness? |
After the walkthrough:
- Each teacher’s appraiser shares brief feedback with the teacher. For example, the appraiser may share one area of strength and an area of growth. This can look like an abbreviated post-conference or can come in the form of written feedback.
- District leadership and principal determine strategic next steps to leverage areas of strength and develop areas of growth across the school.
- Principal shares strengths with school staff.
Download the Teacher Observation Calibration Protocols document for full details (Word)>