Title: Instructional rounds
Description: If there is one common theme of school reform in America, it's that we have been largely unsuccessful at improving whole systems of schools across large cities and regions. Any successes have typically been limited to temporary, fleeting gains in student achievement, while excellence remains isolated in pockets of those systems, and our nation. This pattern is the most consistent result of school improvement efforts in America over the past 30 years, but the reasons for it remain controversial and constantly shifting beneath the feet of educators. This study provides an account of a school system in the midst of an improvement process called instructional rounds. The lesson of their experience is straight-forward: When used frequently enough, the rounds process reveals previously unaddressed, systemic problems. In trying to solve these problems, educators can learn something from each other, and this learning is a leading indicator of an improving organization. Recognizing and addressing these systemic problems is an essential step and precedent for school reform.

Drawing on a year of participant observation and a series of semi-structured interviews with key participants, I develop a framework in which these systemic problems emerge concurrent with the rounds process. In short, the instructional rounds process puts pressure on the knowledge and skills of the school system in ways the adults have not previously experienced. At the same time, the rounds protocols support a particular learning stance among many the educators that provides a process for solving some of these problems. I find four main organizational problems associated with the instructional rounds process that I refer to as problems of 1) Frequency (or finding time to work together in teams) 2) Symmetry (modeling the work expected of students) 3) Reciprocity (helping one another learn) and 4) Expectations (dealing with different views adults hold for what students can know or are able to do). In this case, I find the problem of Expectations is particularly difficult for the system to manage, given a persistent and pervasive "colorblind" frame used by many observers as part of the instructional rounds process.
Subjects: School improvement programs, Educational change, Teaching teams
Places: United States