Beyond Hammers Versus Hugs

Abstract

Educational evaluation (Ed Eval) and professional learning communities (PLCs) are two of the nation’s most predominant approaches to widespread instructional improvement. Yet key attributes of these reform initiatives are too often experienced by teachers as burdensome, or even detrimental, rather than helpful. The authors of this article contend that school leaders will be more successful in their school improvement efforts when they integrate the most promising elements of PLCs (disciplined collaboration, deprivatization of practice, and classroom-based assessment) and Ed Eval (use of professional performance standards, observation and feedback, and a focus on results) into a tiered system of job-embedded professional development. The authors articulate the promises and pitfalls of Ed Eval and PLCs and reenvision how they could be integrated into a system through which subpar teaching is systemically addressed, acceptable teaching is improved upon, and outstanding teaching is sustained and replicated. The authors showcase elements of integrated system using vignettes based on the experiences of an actual high school-level English language arts teacher team.