Instructional Leadership
What you must know
The instructional leader's focus is the quality of teaching and learning for every student. Understand curriculum alignment across the written, taught, and tested curriculum; assessment literacy (formative assessment is ongoing and used to adjust instruction; summative assessment judges learning at a point in time); and data teams or PLCs that examine common assessments and student work to change instruction.
Know the clinical supervision cycle: pre-observation conference, observation, feedback, follow-up. Feedback should be specific, timely, evidence-based, and tied to student learning; coaching and non-evaluative feedback build capacity, while formal evaluation serves accountability. Professional learning works when it is job-embedded, sustained, collaborative, and tied to an identified need - not a one-shot workshop. Also know multitiered systems of support (MTSS) with progress monitoring, differentiation, high expectations, culturally responsive practice, and strategies for closing gaps.
Traps
- Choosing increased pressure or monitoring over capacity building.
- Confusing formative and summative assessment.
- Assuming a single workshop changes practice.
- Offering evaluative judgments rather than observable evidence.
- Focusing on teacher behavior without linking it to student evidence.
Rule of thumb
On feedback items, pick the option that cites specific, nonjudgmental evidence about student learning and follows it with collaboration. Worked example: "You asked 14 questions; 11 were recall-level. Let's look at which students answered and co-plan two higher-order prompts." That is feedback; "your questioning is weak" is not.