Skillful Leadership

Early in its history, RBT realized that our efforts to improve teaching were dependent on having skillful leaders at the school and district level who deeply understood instruction and were expert in a variety of tasks and skills to ensure the constant improvement of teaching. As teacher evaluation took center stage in schools across the country, it became imperative that these systems focus on professional growth rather than judgment and rating systems. The seeming paradox we tackled successfully was enabling administrators to be culture builders while also dealing, when necessary, with unsatisfactory teaching fairly, humanely, and decisively. Thus, the shift from teacher-focused to student-focused observation became a hallmark of our work. Along with that came designing the evaluation systems to foster collegiality and openness as well as the capacity to maintain high standards for teaching skill.