340,766 students<sup>2</sup> . Despite its poverty, Ceará has enjoyed a reputation within Brazil for progressive and effective government and in 2015, Ceará’s secondary schools ranked 10<sup>th</sup> of 27 Brazilian states<sup>3</sup> on the Ministry of Education’s IDEB index of basic education quality (a combined index of national assessment test scores and promotion rates).

Over the 2015 school year, the state implemented an experimental program designed to test whether improvements in teacher practice can be stimulated by providing schools with performance feedback based on classroom observations and practical suggestions and coaching support for more effective pedagogy. Classroom observation research supported by the World Bank in Brazil and elsewhere (Bruns and Luque, 2014) suggests that teachers’ failure to use class time intensively, heavy reliance on traditional “chalk and talk” teaching methods, and inability to keep students engaged may be important factors in repetition, dropout and low learning outcomes. A 2014 federal government policy mandating that schools free up significant teacher time (1/3 of total working hours) in the school week to enable them to engage in professional interaction has created an opportunity for technical assistance or coaching programs to help schools maximize the utility of this extra time.

Supported by the Lemann Foundation, a respected Brazilian NGO dedicated to education, the ELOS consulting group developed a 9-month (one school year) training course and coaching program designed to promote professional interaction among teachers and to promote good practice techniques for lesson planning, classroom management, and keeping students engaged. The Lemann Foundation also published a Portuguese translation ( _Aula Nota 10_ ) of US educator Douglas Lemov’s book _Teach Like a Champion_ .

_a. The intervention_ The intervention had four components:  _Performance feedback on teacher practice_ . At the beginning of the 2015 school year, treatment schools each received a two-page info-graphic “Bulletin” (Annex figures A1 and A2), providing key results from classroom observations undertaken at the end of the prior school year, in November 2014. For each variable, the Bulletin compared the school average to the best school in its district, the state average, the average for Brazil, and to US benchmarks for good practice. The bulletins also included a table with results for individual classrooms, to help schools understand the range in practice that exists in their school, and to identify best practices. (Teachers were not identified by name, only by the class hour and subject.)  _Self-help materials_ . Each school’s principal, pedagogical coordinator, and teachers received a copy of _Aula Nota 10_ , which describes “high-impact” teaching practices that stimulate student learning. The intervention distributed 4,680 books in 175 schools. The book includes practical descriptions of useful techniques, and access to online video examples. The Lemann Foundation website includes examples of the same techniques filmed in Brazilian classrooms.

 _Face-to-face interaction with high-skill coaches_ . Three different one-day workshops were delivered by eight members of the ELOS coaching team. The workshops exposed school directors and pedagogical coordinators to the goals of the program and how to understand the feedback bulletins and use the results. The pedagogical coordinators were trained on how to observe teachers in the classroom and how to hold individual coaching sessions with teachers to provide specific feedback on their teaching practice. They were also trained to film themselves providing feedback to teachers and to upload and share these videos with their coaches, for additional feedback. The workshops stressed that coordinators were responsible for using an online log book to report weekly on their activities and the implementation of the program in their school.  _Expert coaching support via Skype_ - One expert trainer from the São Paulo team interacted regularly with each school’s pedagogical coordinator via Skype. Each coach supported 31-36 schools and was responsible for delivering four coaching sessions over the period to each school. Treatment schools accessed a private website with good practice videos, their own uploads and other materials. The website required weekly online feedback from every pedagogical coordinator about the number of classroom observation and feedback activities implemented in the school, specific issues identified and addressed, and an assessment of progress. The site encouraged teachers and pedagogical coordinators to post video examples of good teacher practices in their school – both classroom teaching examples and pedagogical coordinators giving teachers specific feedback after observing their classes. The online reports indicate that the average time spent on teacher observation, coaching and feedback over the 2015 school year was about 111 hours per school.

# _b. Research questions_

> 2 Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anisio Teixeira – INEP/MEC

> 3 Secretaria da Educação do Ceará – SEDUC-CE

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