Posts Tagged ‘Rubric’
Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Excellence: The Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric in Action
Meet Kendra Salvador, the Executive Director at Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Excellence in Springfield, Massachusetts. Kendra was getting feedback from her teachers that coaching was vague or lacked clarity. Teachers were unsure about how the feedback they were receiving from coaches was supposed to look in action in their classrooms. In addition, teachers were evaluated on a different rubric than what was used in their coaching. Teachers were experiencing a disconnect between the coaching they were receiving and the experiences teaching in their classroom.
Kendra discovered the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric, and was immediately impressed by the tool’s clarity, simplicity, and coherence. Kendra decided to adopt the rubric in her school, and have it replace the different rubrics in use for coaching and evaluation.
A key factor in her decision was the rubric’s focus on both teacher inputs and student outputs, a feature Kendra believes is crucial for effective instruction. Kendra noted that during initial walkthroughs, teachers saw firsthand how a lesson that appeared successful on the surface might be assessed as less effective when student engagement and learning were also considered. Kendra also appreciates the rubric’s Core Teacher Skills (CTS), which provide concrete and specific language that allows teachers and coaches to collaboratively identify a clear goal for a coaching cycle.
Kendra has taken a thoughtful, phased approach to introducing the rubric to her school.
- Pilot and Buy-in: First, Kendra brought the rubric to her Instructional Leadership Team, which includes leaders and teachers. After reviewing it and conducting a few instructional walks with the Hendy Rubric, the team’s feedback was overwhelmingly positive. They agreed that it was clearer and more practical than their previous tools.
- Strategic Alignment: Before introducing the rubric to the broader staff, Kendra meticulously aligned the Hendy Rubric indicators with the school’s strategic priorities for the year, including their focus on Responsive Classroom principles. This ensured that all school-wide initiatives were cohesive and mutually supportive.
- Gradual Rollout: Kendra previewed the rubric with teachers during summer professional development. This preview included an overview of the plan for coaches to use the rubric after the first observation to co-identify a coaching cycle goal with each teacher.
- Creating a Coherent System: The Instructional Excellence Rubric is now the single tool used for both coaching and formal evaluation. To support the evaluation process, Kendra added a fifth domain to the rubric to encompass professionalism, which includes items like reflection and attendance. The evaluation forms are housed on the Vector platform, ensuring all documentation is streamlined.
Kendra’s plan for the rubric at MLKCS centers on calibration and development to ensure the new system works as intended. This includes:
- Regular Calibration: The academic leadership team will meet at least twice a month to conduct calibration exercises. This is a critical step to ensure that all leaders—from the principal to the director of special education—are using the rubric consistently and providing teachers with a unified message.
- Building a Culture of Transparency: The rubric and calibration exercises will be “live” in meetings with both the academic leadership team and teacher PLCs. This approach is intended to demystify the evaluation process and empower teachers to take ownership of their own professional growth, regardless of who their coach is.
Stay tuned for future installments on the first year of implementation at MLKCS. Thank you, Kendra, for sharing your feedback and experiences with us!
Interested in implementing the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric at your school or district? Reach out to Jess or schedule a call!
Moving to Excellence: The Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric Implementation Roadmap
Having a great tool is the first step to ensuring a vision for high quality instruction drives all coaching and support for teachers. Implementation, however, is really where the rubber really meets the road. In our 13 years of experience designing and implementing coaching and observation systems, we’ve found that the highest quality tool doesn’t mean much without careful implementation and change management.
Are you considering rolling out the Hendy Instructional Excellence rubric next fall? If yes, the time to start planning is now. Backwards planning with a focus on change management and implementation will help you ensure that your teachers and leaders maximize what the rubric can offer.
Step 1: Define the Criteria for Success
First, define what success looks like. Why are you implementing the Hendy Rubric? What do you want to be true for teachers and leaders as you implement?
By the end of the first half of the 2026-2027 school year, your goal could be for every teacher to:
- Understand the domains, indicators and performance levels of the rubric.
- Receive quality feedback from instructional leaders that is grounded in the rubric’s language.
- Feel empowered, not evaluated, by the rubric’s use.
Success for every leader and teacher coach could be to:
- Internalize the four domains, indicators, and performance levels of the rubric, and be fluent in the rubric’s language when used in coaching teachers.
- Use the rubric in assessing instruction and identifying highest leverage steps the teacher can take to improve.
- Feel empowered to recognize excellent teaching as described in the rubric, and support all teachers to demonstrate excellence in their classrooms.
Step 2: The Immediate Actions (Fall 2025 – January 2026)
Start with the end in mind, then focus on the now. The actions you take in the next few months will determine the success of your entire plan.
- Fall 2025 (Now): Study and Internalize.
- Get to know the rubric: You must deeply understand the rubric’s philosophy and structure. Identify how each domain connects to your school’s current goals and vision. Use the rubric to guide your own observations of classroom practice.
- Identify potential challenges: Reflect on your school’s culture. Are there existing tools or processes that might conflict with the Hendy Rubric? Are there any teachers or teams that might be resistant? Thinking through these now will help you proactively address them later.
- Initial conversations: Have one-on-one or small-group conversations with key teacher leaders and members of your leadership team to gauge interest and gather initial feedback. Start with the change agents who will help you champion this change.
- Winter 2025-2026 (November-January): Strategize the Rollout.
- Decide how you’ll use the rubric: The rubric can be used purely as a development tool, driving feedback and coaching for teachers. The rubric can also be used as an evaluative tool, driving accountability for teachers. It can also be used both ways. Decide how you’ll use the rubric in your school.
- Secure buy-in: Present the rubric to your team. Explain the “why”—its focus on equity, academic rigor, and social-emotional learning.
- Communicate the vision: Introduce the idea of a new instructional tool in staff meetings. Frame it as an exciting opportunity for professional growth and instructional improvement.
- Test the rubric: Invite teams to take the rubric for a spin. Choose one domain or one indicator, and observe a classroom together. Discuss what you see in the classroom and how it aligns to that indicator or domain. Help your colleagues get a feel for the rubric.
- Budget for the change: Allocate funds for professional development, stipends for your design team, and potential support from Hendy. Reach out if you want more information about how we can support you!
Step 3: The Critical Milestones (Spring/Summer 2026)
Spring and summer are the critical times to create and implement your plan to prepare for fall..
- Spring 2026 (February-May): Build the Foundation.
- Form a design team and create a plan: Create a small, representative group of teachers and leaders to co-create the implementation plan. This ensures the plan is practical and widely accepted.
- Training plan: The design team should outline the professional development sequence. This plan should include training on the rubric’s content and how to use it for observation and feedback.
- Pilot Program: Identify a small group to pilot the rubric, or even just one domain or indicator. The group should use the rubric according to the plan created by the design team.
- Training materials: Create training materials to introduce and calibrate leaders and teachers to the rubric. Review Hendy’s training plan options to find out ways we can help.
- Summer 2026 (June-August): Intensive Training & Calibration.
- Summer training: Host a summer training session for all faculty. Engage teachers and leaders with case studies, video examples of teaching, and group calibration exercises where they practice scoring based on the rubric.
- Resource Preparation: Ensure all supporting documents, forms, and observation tools are ready for use on day one of the school year.
By starting today, you’re building the foundation for a sustainable culture of instructional excellence. The backward plan ensures that your Fall 2026 implementation is the culmination of a well-executed and collaborative effort.
Do you want help with implementation planning? Need support in training and norming for your teachers and leaders? Reach out to set up a call!
What You Measure is What Matters: Why We Care So Much About Instructional Rubrics
The most critical in-school factor in a student’s learning outcomes is the quality of the teacher in the classroom. Teachers deserve feedback, coaching, and growth opportunities that support them to be the best they can for their students. To truly foster professional growth and ensure high-quality instruction for all students, we need a way to measure and define what “good” teaching looks like. This is where a high-quality teacher observation rubric becomes an indispensable tool. A great rubric is more than just a checklist; it’s a shared language and a roadmap for excellence. The fundamental principle at play is simple: what we measure is what matters. The selection of the tool or tools we use to guide classroom observation and teacher development is a signal of what we value most in teaching and learning.
That’s why we have shared the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric free-of-charge with our community. The Hendy Rubric articulates the specific, observable teacher behaviors that drive student outcomes. This clarity provides teachers with a clear understanding of expectations. They know exactly what they’re being coached on and how their performance will be evaluated. The rubric also helps school leaders and coaches calibrate on a shared definition of excellence. When everyone is using the same criteria and language, the feedback a teacher receives becomes more consistent and reliable.
The Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric moves beyond simply articulating what a teacher does and instead focuses also on what students are learning and doing. A teacher’s input is only as effective as the resulting student output. By ensuring the indicators include both teacher actions and student actions, the rubric encourages a shift in mindset. It prompts teachers to ask, “Is what I’m doing leading to meaningful learning for my students?” This focus on student outcomes is the ultimate measure of success and the core purpose of all instructional support.
The Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric can help you to measure what truly matters in teaching in service of student outcomes. Providing targeted, focused coaching and support allows leaders to empower teachers to be their best and ensure that all students receive the high-quality education they deserve.
Want to know how the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric can help you measure what matters? Reach out to Jess at jessicawilson@hendyavenue.com.
The Power of Partnership
A central feature of our work with clients is close partnership with the project manager. We say we walk arm-in-arm with our clients, and it really is true. These close partnerships yield innovative solutions that lead to results for kids and adults in schools. One partnership that exemplifies this innovation is the work that Hendy’s Erica Murphy did with Katie Carpenter during Katie’s leadership tenure at a large CMO. Erica and Katie’s work focused on developing a robust instructional excellence rubric, which eventually became the foundation for the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric. While the creation of the rubric itself was a complex undertaking, the success of the work was a direct result of Erica and Katie’s complementary skills, mutual trust, and shared commitment to the vision.
The Challenge: Unifying Across a Complex System
The network faced a significant challenge: three disparate instructional rubrics across the state, leading to fragmented coaching practices and a lack of alignment in instructional vision. The network’s goal was not merely to create a new rubric, but to establish a single, anchor document that articulated excellence. This required building buy-in and investment from four different regions, each with their own preferences and expectations regarding quality.
A Partnership Built on Trust and Complementary Strengths
Erica and Katie recognized that a strong partnership was crucial for navigating the organizational dynamics and ensuring that the rubric they developed reflected the vision and values of the organization. Their working relationship was characterized by four key elements that are consistent across Hendy’s projects:
- Defined Lanes and Mutual Trust: Katie and Erica articulated and relied on a clear division of labor, built on mutual trust and respect for each other’s strengths. Erica typically prepared the content and built the foundational elements of the rubric, leveraging her expertise in instructional design. Katie excelled at organizational navigation, facilitation, and driving decisions. She understood the internal dynamics of the network, including key influencers, and effectively pushed the project forward. Katie also provided critical feedback on the rubric at each step, bringing her own instructional expertise to bear. This trust allowed Erica and Katie to operate efficiently and effectively despite the complexities of the work.
- Consistent Follow-Through and Accountability: Both Katie and Erica demonstrated a strong commitment to follow-through. If they said they would do something, they did it. This consistent accountability, both to each other and to the project, ensured momentum and fostered a sense of reliability within their partnership.
- Strategic Stakeholder Engagement: Katie’s understanding of the organizational structure and key decision-makers was paramount. Katie strategically formed a diverse steering committee, including representatives from various departments (academics, finance, analytics, talent) to inform the creation of the rubric. This ensured broad input and buy-in to the development of the rubric. Katie and Erica also focused on bringing critical stakeholders into the process early and consistently, ensuring agreement and ownership over the final product.
- Persistent and Purposeful Collaboration: The development of the rubric involved numerous iterations and challenges, but Katie and Erica maintained a persistent and purposeful approach. Their regular standing meetings fostered a rhythm of collaboration, allowing them to continuously refine ideas, make difficult decisions, and keep the project moving forward. They often explored multiple possibilities and potential outcomes, meticulously analyzing options and making decisions rooted in feedback from stakeholders.
The Product of a Strong Partnership: A Strong and Impactful Tool
The network’s Instructional Excellence Rubric, a direct outcome of Erica and Katie’s effective partnership, was deemed a strong and impactful tool. Its most meaningful aspect was the emphasis on student impact – shifting the focus from merely teacher actions to the resulting student learning outcomes. This ensured that the rubric was not just about what a teacher did, but what students learned. Furthermore, the rubric intentionally included language insisting on consideration for exceptional learners, ensuring that all students, regardless of their needs, were addressed in the instructional framework. The clear and actionable core teacher skills provided concrete guidance for coaching and development. The tool also balanced the need to be comprehensive but also lean and user-friendly.
The successful two-year arc of its design, pilot, and initial implementation were a testament to the powerful working relationship between Erica and Katie. Their ability to effectively collaborate, leverage individual strengths, and strategically engage stakeholders ultimately resulted in a highly impactful instructional tool that fostered alignment and development across the network.
Are you interested in learning more about what a partnership with Hendy Avenue Consulting can do for you and your school system? Contact Jessica Wilson at jessicawilson@hendyavenue.com.
Re-Introducing the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric: A Renewed Vision for Teaching Excellence
The Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric has been a cornerstone of our work at Hendy Avenue Consulting, designed to help educators create equitable and high-impact learning environments. We’re re-introducing it with a renewed focus on its core purpose: to be a practical, actionable roadmap for teachers and school leaders.
Why This Rubric Matters
The Hendy Rubric was built on a simple, yet powerful belief: every child deserves excellent instruction. Developed in partnership with teachers and leaders, it offers a clear vision for what excellent teaching looks like. It’s not a checklist; it’s a vision of excellent teaching and learning to help you reflect on your practice and grow as an educator.
What Makes the Rubric Unique?
What sets the Hendy Rubric apart is its balanced approach. It seamlessly integrates academic rigor with social-emotional learning, recognizing that both are critical for student success. The rubric is structured into four key domains, each with clear indicators of excellence:
- Classroom Culture: Creating a predictable, equitable, and positive learning environment.
- Lesson Content & Implementation: Focusing on rigorous, standards-aligned, and differentiated instruction.
- Student Thinking: Encouraging active student engagement and critical thinking.
- Responsiveness to Learning: Using data and feedback to guide instruction and ensure every student grows.
Watch this brief video to hear more about the rubric structure from Hendy’s Erica Murphy.
Putting the Rubric into Practice
While the rubric is a free tool, its real power comes from thoughtful implementation. We’ve seen schools achieve remarkable results by using it as a foundation for professional development, peer observation, and coaching. It provides a common language for discussing teaching and learning, fostering a culture of continuous improvement. We’re excited to see how you continue to use this powerful tool to unlock excellence in your classrooms. Download the free rubric here, and reach out for help with implementation!