(ENCINO, CA) March 13, 2018 — Insight ADVANCE, creator of groundbreaking tools for teacher observation, today announced the launch of a suite of professional learning resources, featuring a new eBook, From “Gotcha” to Growth: Teacher Evaluation Systems That Work. Written by Dr. Michael Moody, the CEO and co-founder of Insight ADVANCE, the in-depth ebook delivers practical solutions for schools and districts looking to improve their evaluation systems with a research-based approach to put the focus on educators’ professional growth.
Moody, a former educator, instructional coach and Chief Academic Advisor in D.C. Public Schools, begins by laying out the “3 Reasons Why Teacher Evaluations Aren’t Working...Yet.” He then examines the latest research and shares best practices from educators and instructional leaders who have successfully implemented teacher evaluation systems that focus on helping teachers improve. The eBook concludes with five simple steps to support school and district administrators in building their own growth-based evaluation systems.
“As someone who has worked in districts that have implemented new systems of evaluation and support,” Moody writes, “I’ve seen firsthand the impact they can have when implemented with the goal of improvement, but only when school leaders and other observers were equipped with the right tools (and mindsets) that allowed and encouraged a formative, teacher-led process.”
A powerful example Moody cites comes from Howard University Middle School in Washington, D.C., where Head of School Kathryn Procope “has helped her teachers actually love the evaluation process. Her efforts to provide more formative feedback, both in-person and via video, have transformed the conversation.”
As Procope put it in an article, “Our teachers are excited about using video, because more than anything, it removes the ‘gotcha’ piece of evaluation. I don’t like that kind of atmosphere. I want to create an atmosphere where teachers want to get better at teaching, and where I can be there to help them do their best.”
From “Gotcha” to Growth is Insight ADVANCE’s third eBook, following Feedback Strategies for Coaches & Administrators and A Game Changer: Using Video to Achieve High Performance in the Classroom. All three eBooks are available for download here. Dr. Moody and veteran educators also regularly blog about trends and ideas for growing great teaching through feedback, observation, and coaching on the Insight ADVANCE blog.
For Moody, video-based technology, such as the Insight ADVANCE Suite, offers educators an unprecedented opportunity to improve their practice, with the ultimate goal of improving student achievement. “The students in our classrooms every day deserve the best teaching we can provide,” he writes. “And the teachers in our classrooms today are their only hope. Teachers deserve our best thinking and support.”
About Insight ADVANCE
As a team of former teachers, coaches, school leaders, and district administrators, Insight ADVANCE is passionate about changing the status quo when it comes to supporting educator growth. Based on years of on-the-ground experience in states, districts, and schools across the country, Insight ADVANCE has developed a suite of products that connects self-reflection, coaching and peer collaboration, observation, and evaluation to permanently impact how all educators involved in teacher growth are supported. The ADVANCE Suite of tools breaks new ground in proving how educator observations, whether on video in person, can generate data that powerfully drives professional growth. To learn more, please visit InsightADVANCE.com/AboutUs.
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Jacob Hanson
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