Want to Analyze a School Like an Expert?
Walk Through a School With a 20-Year Recognized Expert
Everyone wants to be an expert when it comes to education. I’m not sure why, since it’s one of the most thankless jobs in our country, but if you ask any American citizen a question about education — they all think they know all the answers.
Do you really want to analyze a school like an expert?
Step One
If you want to determine if a school is quality or not, the first thing you need to look at is the school’s curriculum. Since, you’re not an expert yet, let me give you a hint.
It’s not the textbooks, workbooks or teacher-made worksheets.
If you want to analyze curriculum, you have to start at the beginning of the learning path — the curriculum maps.
Want to tap out now? I understand. Skip ahead to Step Two if you want to look at teachers, but for the courageous people who want to learn what’s happening in your school, keep reading.
There is a huge debate over using SEL, CRT or Social Justice learning in the classroom. As an expert there is no debate. Teach as much SEL, CRT and Social Justice as you want, but if you believe it’s educating your kids — you’re fooling yourself. In other words, teaching these three things makes adults “feel better,” but fails to provide kids with the skills they need in the future.
Here’s what students need to learn in school. But before I can outline the learning goals, everyone needs to fully recognize that K12 schools are a continuum of learning. That means students need to master the skills in Kindergarten so they can handle 1st grade, 2nd grade, and so on.
Elementary Schools
Having said that, elementary schools (Grades K-5) need to teach 19th century basic skills in their curriculum maps. In non-educator speak that means elementary schools need to teach the three basic skills: reading, writing and math.
Our federal government has already codified those three basic skills in the Common Core Standards and we use standardized testing to measure the outcomes. If you want to read more about the “REAL” data from those tests, check out this other article I published.
Middle Schools
The standardized testing data clearly shows that 5th graders have finished learning the Common Core standards. That’s 90% of them at least. So what should Middle Schools (Grades 6–8) be teaching then?
The answer is a hybrid between the 19th century skills and the modern 21st century skills. The reason you want a hybrid is because 10% of students have not finished the 19th century skills learning path. For those students, you want to provide extreme interventions, so they are ready for high school. While the other 90% of students are being prepared for high school. In other words, we should be calling our nation’s middle schools — the high school prep program.
High Schools
Here’s where the controversy really upsets people. In 2011, I became one of the first superintendents in the country to implement a 21st century skills curriculum in my high school. So I know what a 21st century skills curriculum looks like, I know the hurdles teachers and students will face and I know how to overcome those roadblocks.
That still doesn’t stop people from trying to argue the other side. Except there is no “other” side. It’s skills learning. That’s all. You can agree or disagree with teaching skills in school, but you cannot deny their impact on student outcomes.
Right now, most high schools in America are blindly following the Common Core standards, which I have already shown you are elementary skills. But the insanity doesn’t stop there — teachers are now running into the limitations of a 19th century skills curriculum and can’t understand what’s wrong.
The number one issue facing schools right now is student behavior and student attention spans.
Here’s a fact for you — make the curriculum more valuable to high school students and their attention will come back and their behaviors will subside.
The 21st century skills curriculum is based on the outstanding research by Georgetown University and it’s hard to argue that researchers at Georgetown don’t know what they are talking about.
Getting Over the Hump
When a school contacts me they want to hear how I innovate student learning and the classroom, but they usually admit it will be hard to convince or “sell” the teachers on teaching 21st century skills.
That’s part of the problem. I’m not a salesperson by trade. I’m an expert educator. So I don’t sell anything. And I explain that to district leaders. I show teachers the difference between the 19th century skills and 21st century skills curriculums. Once they see the difference, they have a million questions they want answered. My job at that point is just to answer all of their questions.
No sales pitch needed. By the end of the presentation, elementary teachers feel great because they know what they need to do. Middle school teachers are inspired because they understand their role as “preparation” teachers.
And high school teachers have a real purpose now. It’s no longer about “convincing” students to read Shakespeare and do Algebra problems. High school teachers are helping students be college and career ready for REAL!!
And that’s a truly empowering position to be in.
Using 19th century skills in high school and “pretending” it’s preparing kids for the 21st century is no longer even plausible. High school students in 2022 know the difference between something modern and something really, really old. Not to mention, high school students know how to read, write and do math. How much more 19th century homework do you want them to do before they rebel and start to hate school?
Or is the goal to make students hate school?
Step Two
Before I dive into Step Two, I want to acknowledge this section is going to upset a ton of people and cause a huge debate. I’m prepared, but I’m hopeful you will refrain from prejudice until after you finish reading this section — you might be surprised at what I write.
One of the reasons I get contacted by schools, is because I developed and ran something called The Teacher Development Program from 2009–2020. In short, the program is a formal 2-year on the job teacher training and preparation program. One of the biggest highlights is a 40-hour teacher bootcamp, which helps teachers get ready for the beginning of the school year.
Why was the Teacher Development Program Successful?
One of the biggest issues teachers face in the classroom is knowing “what” to do when a situation occurs that is beyond their experience level. And it’s easy to believe that you know “everything” until you encounter a student or a situation that’s outside your experience or comfort zone. Then all of a sudden, you realize, “maybe I haven’t seen everything.”
This happens to every single teacher, in the history of teaching. It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing you have seen and done everything, especially after 15 or 20 years of experience.
The problem teachers face is not a lack of experience, the problem teachers face is a lack of technique and best practices. Unfortunately, the K12 system does not support or realize that teaching is a real profession. Just like lawyers or doctors, teachers need to follow teaching best practices and learn real professional teaching techniques.
Walk With Me
The best way to explain teaching performance is to have you come with me on a classroom walkthrough. Over my 20 year career, thousands of teachers have asked me “what do I look for when I observe a classroom?”
So here’s the answer to that question. There are four specific areas I’m looking to check:
- Classroom Environment
- Lesson Delivery
- Making Connections
- Lesson Planning
When I enter a classroom the first thing I notice is the classroom environment. What I want to check is if this classroom is safe and conducive to learning for the students. And there are 9 items a teacher must do, in order to create a safe and conducive learning environment.
Along with the Education Development Institute, an education think tank, we have been collecting data on safe classrooms across the country. If you want to take the Safe Classrooms Quiz, follow this link:
It’s easy to see if the room is decorated or how the seats are arranged on the seating chart, but it’s not easy to see the invisible classroom. That’s right, the emotional classroom that lives underneath the surface. Teachers that call home to discipline students, send kids to the principal’s office frequently, don’t use valid grading rubrics and don’t use a research-based positive behavior support program are neglecting the invisible classroom environment and thus disrupting the safe space they “believe” they have created.
It’s easy for me to spot these mistakes. By the same token, it’s also easy for teachers to fix them too.
What Makes a Teacher Any Good at Teaching?
I’m sure you are already jumping the gun and trying to answer this question for yourself. Slow down a second. Who is the expert educator in this situation — you or me?
What you need to realize is that your answers to this question are “best guesses.” Do you want to make decisions based on guesses or facts? Schools should not be run by people who make guesses their best options.
Here’s what I look for when I walk into a classroom to observe a teacher during a lesson.
Differentiated Instruction
In non-educator speak, differentiated instruction means providing instruction to students in multiple learning styles. For reference, there are three main learning styles: audio, visual and kinesthetic.
If you have never spent time inside a classroom teaching, you may not realize that children have a primary and secondary learning style. And they rely heavily on their primary learning style in the classroom. If you’ve ever seen a meme, video or teacher post about student attention issues or asking the teacher to “re-explain” the directions 2 minutes after the teacher has already explained them — those are signs the teacher is not differentiating.
Here’s what I mean. When I walk into a classroom, I expect to see written on the board the lesson objective and the instructions for the first lesson activity. The reason I want to see that is because this will help the visual learners in the room. An expert teacher will point to the written objective and instructions as they read them aloud and explain what they mean and what the students will do in class. By explaining out loud, the teacher is addressing the auditory learners in the room.
But what about the kinesthetic learners?
Don’t worry. Those are the students who look tuned out, not paying attention or who will raise their hand two minutes after the teacher is done and ask “what are we supposed to do?” An expert teacher doesn’t get upset or frustrated, instead they walk over to the student individually and show them what they need to do.
When I see this happen in a classroom, I know that I am watching a teacher who understands how to teach.
How Do Teachers Know if Students are Learning?
In my 20 years of experience, everyone loves to answer the other question, “what makes a teacher good?” but is dead silent when it comes to this question. And for good reason. It’s really hard to assess student learning and only real expert teachers know how to do it well and consistently for every student.
Here’s what I see when I walk into a classroom.
There is a moment during the period when each student will be right on the precipice of “getting it.” Expert teachers know how to provide instruction in such a manner that it helps each student reach this point before the period ends. This isn’t luck — this happens because the teacher has practiced their teaching techniques and understands the best practices.
Expert teachers can identify when a student is “right there” and can walk over to the student and provide that extra level of support so the student makes the final connection. When that occurs it’s often referred to as the “ah-ha! moment.”
The “ah-ha! moment” does not happen in every class period, but what I can see as an observer is if the teacher can identify when a student is close. I can see it, so as the observer, I have to sit patiently and hope the teacher can see it too! When I see the teacher identify and support, I know I’m observing an expert teacher.
The Art and Purpose of Lesson Planning
The last thing I do when I do a walkthrough is check the lesson plan. Unfortunately because the K12 system has neglected teacher practice for generations, the ability to write a highly proficient lesson plan has been lost.
Expert teachers understand the importance of the lesson plan. Whereas most teachers think lesson plans are for compliance reasons only or as a way for principals to “gotcha” teachers — real experts in education know the reasoning behind lesson planning.
When I sit down to observe a classroom, I want to see what the learning objective was in the lesson plan. Does it match what the teacher did in class? That’s important to know because if the teacher changed what happened in class, I want to know why?
The other thing I want to see in the lesson plan is does the teacher highlight why the students are doing this lesson activity? How does this activity draw upon the prior knowledge of the student and what will this information do to push the student forward to the next day’s lesson.
In the education world, this is called scope and sequencing. And it’s at the heart of expert level lesson planning and teaching.
When I read the lesson plan and it outlines for me what the students are doing that day in class, but also how it will push toward the next lesson, I feel comfortable knowing the teacher has a handle on academics in the room.
Support Struggling Teachers
I developed The Teacher Development Program in 2009 because I wanted to support teacher growth. I recognized that professional development only looked good on paper, but NEVER fulfills the promise it preaches.
No teacher has ever come out of a year of professional development better at their profession. The very best a professional development workshop can do is inspire a teacher to want to learn more. But then what?? They have to go research and do all the work on their own. What was the point of the professional development then? Why not do the research for the teachers and then use the professional development time to let them read it, ask questions and then implement it into the classroom?
That’s what the Teacher Development Program did for over 10 years.
There are millions of struggling teachers in America. They are all feeling stressed out and overwhelmed. That’s why I created a FREE Facebook Group for Teachers. It’s a private group, because we only want teachers in the group. After you request membership and answer the group questions, you get access to download 5 FREE Teacher Kits; (Lesson Planning, Student/Teacher Relationships, Safe Classrooms, PBS and Creating a Teacher POD).
If you want to join the FREE Teacher Facebook Group, follow this link:
Step Three
When a district or school contacts me, it’s usually the school leaders making the request, which also means that I need to analyze if the people in charge know what they are doing or not.
And that’s step three.
As you can probably imagine, it’s awkward for me to reveal to a school leader that I think they might be making some mistakes and moving in the wrong direction.
No one likes to be told they are “wrong.”
But like Chef Gordon Ramsey, you don’t contact me because you want me to pat you on the back if you are doing things the wrong way. I’m going to be honest and I’m going to point out mistakes and then show you ways to fix them and improve teaching and student achievement.
The Principal is the Instructional Leader
Every school administrator has heard this at one point in their career, whether it was in graduate school or from a mentor — the principal must be the instructional leader of the school.
Here’s the problem I see all the time. Principals and school administrators do not know how to read curriculum maps. In many cases, the principal hasn’t read all of the maps for their school and teachers.
How can a principal or school administrator help a staff member if they don’t know what they should be doing in the classroom?
The answer is obvious. They won’t be able to help at all. And that’s what’s happening across this country in school after school, teachers are struggling in the classroom and the administrators of those school buildings cannot provide any level of support or guidance.
This needs to change.
The Principal’s Academy
Around 2013, I began the Principal’s Academy because I was receiving so many requests and questions from other school administrators to visit their schools or answer questions that I decided to invite them all to meet with me weekly after school in my high school.
The first thing that jumped out at me listening to hundreds of school leaders talk was how much time they spent on student discipline and student referrals. All of these administrators were spending so much time on those issues that I had to ask, “how much time do you spend on curriculum and student learning?”
They all said the same thing, “not a lot.” But it wasn’t because they were neglecting student achievement, it was because they “believed” they had to be the disciplinarian of the school.
What changed everything for them was learning the research and understanding how punitive discipline strategies have been proven to fail most of the time. In fact, it’s such a proven failure that the research is clear and precise.
They all got a good laugh at how I described handling discipline in my K12 program, but the key understanding was changing their priorities. Instead of focusing all of their attention on student discipline, turn their attention to better curriculum and improve teacher performance.
This should make logical sense, if you have read the whole article. When you have a building filled with expert level teachers, how many times would you deal with student issues? The answer is not many.
And if you focused your energies on making sure you had a tight and rigorous curriculum, following the goals I outlined in Step One, how many times would you deal with student issues? Again, the answer is not many.
And that is the secret.
Once the administrators stopped worrying about the negative outcomes and started focusing on improving the inputs — the outcomes changed. In other words, school administrators need to stop chasing their own tail.
The Leadership Program
Anyone that wants to learn more about leadership can do so at Leaf Academy. To help people get started in developing their leadership skills, Leaf Academy is offering a FREE Guide, “The 6 Objectives of Leadership” which breaks down the six different objectives a leader must learn and master.
If you want that free guide:
Leaf Academy is also offering a 100% FREE Webinar called “The Secret of Leadership.” Anyone can register for this FREE Webinar here:
Developing a Leadership Mindset
It’s easy to dismiss new ideas. It’s easy to argue against things you don’t know or don’t understand. But arguing and dismissing ideas is not what a true leader does.
Real leaders listen to all ideas, no matter where they come from. And the reason is because you never know who will give you an idea that can help millions of people.
Are you a real leader? Or do you want to sit and argue all day?
I have over 20 years of experience inside the K12 system. I started my career as a classroom teacher, then earned my Masters and became an administrator. I have solved three major issues facing schools in America. As you read, I became one of the first superintendents to implement a 21st century skills curriculum, I developed the most effective teacher training program in the nation and I started a Principal’s Academy to help school leaders be real leaders.
In 2017, I was recognized by the NJ Legislature for my achievements. I also provided expert testimony before the NJ Joint Legislative Committee on the Public Schools and I was nominated to join the NJ Governor’s Task Force on the Public Schools. And in 2020, the US Department of Education ranked NJ #1 in Education in America.
Summary
In summary, here’s what we learned in this article. If you want to turn around a school, you need to first fix the curriculum (step one), then improve the performance of teachers (step two) and lately help the school leaders manage and supervise it all (step three).
Did you enjoy walking through a school with me? If so, I hope you will also visit Leaf Academy and sign up for the Rewards Program. This is the best rewards program on the planet because you don’t have to calculate points and maximize your value. Just sign up and start earning immediately. If you want to join follow this link:
About the Author:
D.Scott Schwartz, M.Ed. is the CEO and Founder of Leaf Academy and an education think tank. He is better known as “The School Doc” and hosts a weekly LIVE podcast on Instagram called “Tuesdays with Schwartz.” If you want more information about bringing “The School Doc” to your school, go to the Leaf Academy website (link in bio.)
