Feedback to Feed Forward: 31 Strategies to Lead Learning, Oct/2018

Feedback that works—for leadership that makes a difference. 

As a leader, you know that feedback is essential to teachers’ growth and development. But crafting the right feedback can be daunting. How do you conduct comprehensive observations, accurately analyze lessons for effectiveness, and develop high-leverage action steps that bring lasting change to teacher practices and student outcomes? 

This how-to book, designed for leaders in all roles and at all experience levels, provides a dynamic yet practical leadership model focused on precisely those key tasks. Features include

1. Comprehensive explanations of standards and descriptions of discrete core skills
2. Explicit think-alouds, ready-to-use strategies, and field-tested lesson examples
3. Evidence-collection notes—with templates—from live observations
4. Feedback samples across grade levels and content areas
5. Replicable case studies for professional learning 

Simply inspecting teaching practice through observation might be easy; providing feedback that feeds forward and promotes growth is far more challenging. With this comprehensive learning tool, you’ll use feedback to make the most of your role as a leader of learning—for both teachers and students.

Feedback to Feed Forward has been recognized for focusing on practices that have high effect sizes and will help you translate the groundbreaking Visible Learning research into practice. When educators use strategies that have high effects (greater than 0.40), they can accelerate student achievement. The power of the Visible Learning research lies in helping educators understand which factors have the highest impact on student achievement so that educators can begin making strategic decisions based on evidence that will utilize their time, energy, and resources to the best extent possible. The Visible Learning research is based on Professor John Hattie’s unmatched meta-analysis of more than 1,600 research reviews comprising 95,000 studies, involving more than 300 million students—the world’s largest evidence base on what works best in schools to improve student learning. From that research, Dr. Hattie identified more than 250 factors that have an impact on student achievement.  

About the Authors:

Amy Tepper has served as a teacher, administrator, and program director in various K-12 settings and startups to include virtual, homeschool, blended, and public schools. She held the position of Executive Director of a Sylvan Learning Center, opened an alternative 6th-12th school in Okaloosa County, FL, and later was actively engaged in Florida high school redesign and career education reform, providing technical assistance across the state. Amy had the opportunity to collaborate with a team of parents to develop the Ohana Institute, an innovative blended school, focused on global citizenship and discovery learning, serving as Director in its first year. As a consultant, she provided instructional and administrative coaching at an international school in Panama, before joining ReVISION Learning Partnership in 2013. Amy has since completed countless classroom observations through work as a peer validator evaluating practices in Newark and New Haven schools, and in providing embedded, ongoing support for instructional leaders and teachers in the areas of high quality observation, feedback, and teaching and learning across Connecticut.

Patrick Flynn has worked as a teacher, teacher leader, curriculum director, and executive program director in K-12 settings in over eleven different states. As the Executive Director of High Schools for Edison Schools and the Chief Academic Officer for Great Schools Workshop in Sacramento, CA, Patrick worked with building and district administrations in nine states to implement systemic high school reform. He has provided professional learning in the areas of transformational leadership, performance management systems, standards-driven instruction, and data-driven decision-making. Patrick is Founder and Executive Director of ReVISION Learning Partnership, providing professional development and support to districts and educational organizations in CT, NY, NJ, and LA since 2010. He has led several school improvement initiatives in rural and urban settings and internationally in the United Arab Emirates with the Abu Dhabi Education Council. He has presented nationally and internationally, including as a keynote speaker at the Forum on Big Data at the Tianjin University of Technology, in Tianjin, China. ReVISION Learning is highly sought after for its leadership in providing the highest quality professional learning opportunities for teacher, administrators, and district personnel.