Posts Tagged ‘Teacher Evaluation’
Beyond the Checklist: Coaching for Impact Using an Arc of the Year Strategy
Imagine this: a new school year begins, and as a teacher, you’re handed a rubric with 16 different instructional practices, all deemed “essential” for excellence. Your coach then informs you they’ll be observing and coaching you on… well, all of them. Sound familiar? If you’re a coach, teacher, or school leader, you probably recognize the immediate feelings that arise from this scenario: overwhelm, scattered focus, and a sense of “where do I even begin?”
At Hendy Avenue, we recognize a fundamental truth about instructional coaching: you can’t effectively coach (or be coached on) 16 different things at once. It’s simply not sustainable.
Here’s why the “all at once” approach falls short:
- Coach Overwhelm: For coaches, trying to observe, provide feedback, and support growth across a vast array of indicators for every teacher is a recipe for burnout. The coaching becomes superficial, lacking the depth needed for true impact.
- Teacher Overwhelm: Teachers, already juggling countless responsibilities, are left feeling inadequate when faced with a long list of “areas for improvement.” This can lead to frustration and a lack of clear direction.
- Not All Indicators Are Created Equal: Some instructional practices are foundational, forming the bedrock of an effective classroom. Others are more advanced, building upon those initial skills. Treating them all with the same urgency neglects this natural cascade of development.
- Lack of Coherence: When every coach is focusing on different aspects of the rubric, and every teacher is getting varied feedback, the school’s PD efforts become fragmented. It’s incredibly difficult to have aligned PD that truly supports the coaching happening in classrooms if there’s no shared focus. This creates a chaotic environment where teachers receive “random” information rather than a coherent, supportive system.
Enter the “Arc of the Year”: A Strategic Approach to Coaching and PD
To combat this potential overwhelm, we advocate for chunking the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric and the associated coaching into manageable “arcs” across the school year. This strategy brings focus, coherence, and ultimately, greater impact to your instructional improvement efforts.
The Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric is organized into four domains, each with an essential question and a set of indicators that describe what an effective classroom looks like. Our “Arc of the Year” strategy aligns with these domains to provide a clear pathway for teacher development. The goal for each teacher is to work toward a rating of “Proficiency” or a “Level 3” during each observation on each Indicator.
Here’s how it works:
Arc 1: Building a Strong Foundation (Domain 1: Classroom Culture)
The beginning of the school year is crucial for establishing a predictable, accessible, and joyful learning environment. How you start is how it is. Therefore, Arc 1 is intensely focused on Domain 1: Classroom Culture.
- PD Alignment: Your school-wide professional development should be specifically designed to reinforce strong routines, cultivate joy, and build positive relationships.
- Focused Observations & Feedback: When a coach enters a classroom, their observations and subsequent feedback are laser-focused on these foundational elements. They’re looking specifically at indicators related to predictable routines, high expectations for all, community and relationships, and academic joy.
- Targeted Coaching: Coaching conversations and support are rooted in these Domain 1 indicators. If a coach observes a classroom struggling with transitions, the coaching will center on strategies for smoother routines, and use the Core Teacher Skills from Domain 1 to help.
A critical nuance: if you’re coaching an experienced teacher who has already established a beautiful classroom culture, the coach shouldn’t waste time on what’s already mastered. Instead, the coach should look ahead within the framework and begin to coach that teacher on what they need, even if it falls outside the general Arc 1 focus. This personalized approach is key.
Arc 2: Deepening Instructional Practice (Domain 2: Lesson Content & Implementation)
Once a significant majority of teachers in a school have established a strong classroom culture, it’s time to move on to the design and implementation of instruction. Arc 2 shifts the focus to Domain 2: Lesson Content & Implementation. This domain addresses whether students are engaged with content that is purposeful, rigorous, and differentiated.
- Data-Driven Decisions: This transition is often informed by school-wide data. Are we seeing issues with student engagement in academic tasks? Are students demonstrating deep understanding, or just surface-level recall? This data guides the specific indicators within Domain 2 that will be prioritized.
- Coaching Alignment: During this arc, coaches are focused on things like lesson alignment, pacing, rigor, and differentiation. The goal is to ensure teachers are spending the most time on the most important concepts and that students are engaging in productive struggle with the content. When coaches enter classrooms, their observations and feedback are centered on these indicators. The majority of a teacher’s coaching should be in this arc unless they have a foundational gap in a prior domain.
Arc 3: Centering Student Thinking (Domain 3: Student Thinking)
After a strong foundation in classroom culture and lesson execution is established, the arc shifts to
Domain 3: Student Thinking. This domain asks to what extent students are responsible for the thinking, speaking, writing, and creating in the classroom.
- Coaching Alignment: When coaches observe during this arc, they are focused on the ratio of teacher to student thinking. Key indicators in this arc include questioning, ensuring students are doing the “heavy lifting,” discussion facilitation, and building content expertise in students. A coach will look to see if the teacher is asking questions at a variety of levels and if students are supporting their answers with evidence and explanation. The focus is on ensuring students are the ones doing the intellectual work.
- PD Alignment: School-wide data from coaching helps to inform school-wide PD. If, in Arc 3, many teachers are struggling with facilitating student discussion, then the school might plan a PD focused on techniques for discussion facilitation. The goal is to ensure that PD is aligned and coherent with support in individual coaching.
Arc 4: Responsiveness to Learning (Domain 4: Responsiveness to Learning)
The final arc of the year focuses on Domain 4: Responsiveness to Learning. This domain addresses how teachers use data and feedback to ensure students are learning and to reteach or provide support for more precise understanding.
- Coaching Alignment: This arc is centered on how teachers actively monitor student learning, use data to make instructional decisions, provide intentional feedback, and teach with purpose. Coaches will observe how teachers circulate to evaluate student progress and how they adjust their teaching based on misconceptions. This is about closing the loop of instruction, ensuring that student learning is continuously being assessed and supported.
The “Arc of the Year” is a framework, not a rigid straitjacket. While the general focus shifts, individualized coaching remains paramount. If a teacher’s classroom management significantly deteriorates, a good coach will still address that immediate need, regardless of the current arc. Conversely, if a teacher is excelling in the current arc’s focus, the coach should proactively move to areas where that teacher is ready for more advanced development. By strategically chunking the rubric into these arcs, schools can transform an overwhelming set of indicators into a clear, coherent, and highly effective pathway for teacher growth and student success.
Want support designing an arc of the year strategy for your school or district? Send us an email!
Unlock Teacher Growth with Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric Training
The Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric is more than just a tool for evaluation; it’s a comprehensive framework for professional growth. To ensure schools and districts can effectively leverage this rubric, Hendy provides a range of training and support services tailored to different needs and levels of engagement.
Our trainings can be tailored to your school’s specific needs, and are always a dynamic learning experience for your teachers and leaders. Don’t take our word for it – see below for feedback from Hendy training participants!
I loved all the content and the calibration with the videos and discussion was incredibly helpful. I also LOVE the rubric and am excited to use it!
Director of student services
The first session where we did a deep dive into the rubric was very helpful! We were able to take time to internalize the rubric, understand its purpose and structure, and practiced norming and applying the rubric to different scenarios.
Anonymous
The debrief of the rubric plus the norming and certification tasks were extremely useful and fun!School Dean of Curriculum and Instruction
High School Dean of Curriculum and Instruction
Hendy offers four main types of training and support to help school leaders and teachers master the rubric and integrate it into their daily practice:
- Rubric Training Materials + Train-the-Trainer: This option is ideal for schools that want to build internal capacity. Hendy provides a complete set of training materials, including slides, facilitator guides, and videos, for both school leaders and teachers. Additionally, we offer virtual “train-the-trainer” sessions to empower a school’s own staff to become expert facilitators.
- Rubric Training Facilitation: For schools seeking direct expertise, Hendy’s professional facilitators can lead training sessions. This ensures that leaders and teachers receive in-depth, hands-on instruction from those who know the rubric best.
- Readiness Assessment and Recommendations: Before a full-scale implementation, it’s crucial to understand your system’s current state. Hendy can conduct a thorough readiness assessment, including data collection and a written report with strategic recommendations, to ensure a smooth and successful rollout.
- Evaluation Design, Pilot, and Implementation: This is a highly customized service designed to align the Hendy rubric with your existing evaluation and development processes. It includes personalized support for stakeholder engagement, policy development, rubric customization, and continuous training to guarantee a seamless and effective implementation.
Whether you’re looking to build internal expertise, receive direct training, or get a customized implementation plan, Hendy’s training services are designed to help your educators thrive and create a culture of instructional excellence.
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!
Announcing the 25-26 DEEL Cohort!
Last fall, Hendy launched the District Educator Effectiveness Leader (DEEL Cohort) – an opportunity for senior-level leaders in large public school districts responsible for employee effectiveness initiatives. The cohort was so successful that we are launching for the second year this September! The DEEL builds on Hendy’s success at facilitating cohorts for charter-network leaders, and extends that opportunity to leaders from traditional public school districts. The cohort includes a group of leaders from districts across the country, who collectively are responsible for performance management and effectiveness initiatives for tens of thousands of employees. Join us in congratulating the 2025-26 DEEL cohort participants!
- Tori Austin from San Antonio Independent School District
- Amber Daniel from Houston Independent School District
- Michael Herring from Chicago Public Schools
- Chrishele Kingdom from Detroit Public Schools Community District
- Charity Magruder from Prince George’s County Public Schools
- Jesse Papia from Baltimore City Public Schools
- Richel Raich-Cantu from IDEA Public Schools
- Yolanda Stanislaus from Montgomery County Public Schools
- Tiffany Suggs from Gwinnett County Public Schools
The 25-26 cohort will begin meeting in September. We look forward to sharing what we learn! Interested in joining the DEEL cohort, or want more information? Visit our website or check out this information sheet. Ready to participate? Contact Jessica.
Defining and Developing Teaching Excellence: The Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric
Over the past 12 years, Hendy Avenue Consulting has partnered with numerous school systems to set a vision for excellent teaching, create and pilot instructional rubrics based on this vision, and implement those rubrics to support high-quality teacher coaching and development. These partnerships led to the creation of the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric, now freely available under a Creative Commons license on Hendy’s website. Five school systems across the country have already adopted some version of the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric. While Hendy tailors each engagement to the specific needs of the school system, Hendy’s close partnership with a large, multi-region charter school network served as the initial catalyst for what is now the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric.
The Challenge: The charter school network faced a significant challenge: their four regions were using different rubrics to define and develop excellent teaching. This inconsistency created disparities in how teachers were coached and supported across the network and missed opportunities to use the data to inform network priorities. The network reached out to Hendy to help them lead a project to create, pilot, and implement a unified vision of teaching excellence, aligning teacher development across all regions while maintaining high academic and instructional standards.
Setting the Foundation for Success: Hendy began with careful attention to organizational dynamics and stakeholder buy-in. The charter school network and Hendy established a clear RAPID decision-making framework and identified key stakeholders across departments whose participation would be crucial. This preliminary phase proved essential, establishing both the authority and the limitations within which the team would operate. This also ensured that the rubric development would center on what is most critical for students in classrooms: high-quality teaching and learning.
Creating a Common Vision of Excellence: Hendy convened a diverse subcommittee to lead the project, representing various roles (including talent, curriculum and instruction, and data), schools, tenure levels, and demographic backgrounds. This diverse representation ensured the rubric would be a practical tool for coaching and development. The subcommittee met regularly, engaging in deep discussions about what constitutes excellent teaching facilitated by Hendy team members. The group took a methodical approach to creating the new rubric. They began by discussing what excellent teaching looked like in different contexts and establishing a “blue sky” vision for teacher development. These conversations revealed both the strengths of existing approaches and the opportunities that a unified vision could provide. They conducted a detailed crosswalk of existing frameworks provided by Hendy, identifying the key elements that drove teacher growth across all contexts. This analysis helped the committee work with Hendy to create a rubric that would be both comprehensive and practical for everyday use. The team iterated on the rubric several times, testing different domains and indicators across different classrooms and contexts.
Piloting and Refining the Vision: The pilot phase demonstrated the charter school network’s commitment to thoughtful implementation. Hendy launched the pilot with an orientation webinar, introducing the rubric to the broader community and outlining its purpose, structure, and role in teacher development. This helped build understanding and buy-in. The webinar provided practical guidance for leaders to begin using the rubric while allowing for refinement based on their experiences. Recognizing the unique needs of certain teaching populations, Hendy and the charter team specifically engaged Special Education teachers, fine arts instructors, PE teachers, and preK educators through targeted surveys and focus groups. This ensured their perspectives would shape the final framework. Pilot schools used the rubric in multiple contexts. Leadership teams conducted walkthroughs using the new framework at least 2-3 times that spring, testing its effectiveness in different classroom settings. School leaders also used the framework in coaching conversations with teachers, providing valuable insights. Throughout the pilot, Hendy maintained a strong feedback loop, gathering input through structured surveys and focus groups and used this information to make adjustments. Critically, Hendy and the committee closed the feedback loop by communicating changes back to participants, explicitly connecting their input to specific modifications. Leaders found the rubric helpful in structuring coaching conversations, providing a common language for discussing teaching excellence. They also identified areas where additional guidance was needed, particularly around using the rubric to support different types of teachers and content areas.
Implementation, Training, and Capacity Building: The summer marked the transition to full implementation. In partnership with Hendy, the large, multi-region charter school network invested heavily in developing the capacity of those who would use the rubric. The implementation began with establishing clear systems and structures. Hendy worked with school leaders to determine coaching roles, the frequency of observations and coaching conversations, and how teachers would engage with the rubric. The subsequent training program facilitated by Hendy was comprehensive and sustained, extending through the summer and following school year. It began with foundation training, where coaches learned not just about the rubric’s structure but also how to use it as a tool for development. These interactive sessions included practicing with instructional video analysis and guiding coaching conversations. Quarterly practice-based sessions facilitated by Hendy throughout the school year reinforced learning. Each session followed a thoughtful progression: leaders would study specific indicators, analyze teaching videos, engage in calibration discussions, and practice coaching conversations. The embedded certification process was particularly effective. Rather than a one-time event, it was a supportive process allowing for multiple attempts and providing additional support when needed.
Legacy and Evolution: The Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric: Hendy’s work on creating and implementing this charter school network’s rubric significantly influenced the development of the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric. The Hendy rubric builds upon the successful elements of the charter school network’s process while introducing innovations. Like its predecessor, the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric organizes teaching excellence into four domains, each guided by an essential question. It adds “Core Teacher Skills” for each indicator, providing specific, actionable guidance for teacher development. This helps bridge the gap between identifying excellent teaching and developing teachers’ practice. The Hendy rubric also refines the approach to measuring impact, maintaining the charter school network’s focus on student outcomes while creating clearer developmental progressions. This helps teachers and coaches identify specific next steps for growth.
Want to learn more about the Hendy Instructional Excellence framework? Visit our website or email Jessica Wilson!
Unlocking Excellence in Teaching with the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric
At Hendy Avenue Consulting, we believe every child deserves excellent instruction, every day, in every classroom. This foundational belief has guided our work with schools and districts across the country for over a decade. Now, we’re thrilled to share a tool that embodies this commitment: the Instructional Excellence Rubric.
This free, equity-focused tool is designed to provide a clear and actionable vision for teaching and learning. With its detailed structure and emphasis on both teacher actions and student outcomes, the rubric is more than a framework—it’s a roadmap for achieving excellence in classrooms.
At Hendy, we have had the privilege of partnering with school systems across the country as they endeavor to implement observation rubrics that support great coaching and development for teachers, and improved outcomes for students. The Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric is the product of several engagements over several years. With our partners, we saw the need for a higher quality observation rubric that better met school systems’ needs, and we worked to create this rubric in partnership with teachers and school leaders from across the country. We’ve supported several systems to successfully implement versions of this rubric, and have seen the positive impact it has had on schools. We are excited now to make this rubric available, for free, to everyone for the benefit of schools, teachers, and students.
What Makes the Instructional Excellence Rubric Unique?
The Instructional Excellence Rubric stands apart because it balances rigorous academics with social-emotional learning, ensuring that all aspects of a student’s success are prioritized. It reflects years of experience working directly with teachers, leaders, and schools to define what truly works in classrooms.
Here’s how the rubric is structured:
- Classroom Culture: Focuses on creating a predictable, joyful, and equitable environment that maximizes learning time.
- Lesson Content & Implementation: Emphasizes rigorous, purposeful, and differentiated instruction to meet the needs of all students.
- Student Thinking: Highlights the importance of students doing the thinking, speaking, writing, and creating during lessons.
- Responsiveness to Learning: Centers on using feedback and data to adapt teaching and ensure every student grows and succeeds.
Each domain contains clear indicators of excellence, articulated across four levels of performance. These descriptors help educators identify what success looks like and provide actionable steps for improvement.
How Can the Rubric Help You?
Whether you’re a school leader, instructional coach, or system administrator, the rubric can:
- Provide a shared language for excellence across your school or district.
- Guide teacher coaching and development with clear, equity-focused expectations.
- Support classroom observations that prioritize student outcomes.
It’s a comprehensive tool for anyone committed to improving teaching and learning at scale.
The Power of Training and Support
While the rubric is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, its full potential is unlocked through thoughtful implementation and training. That’s where Hendy Avenue Consulting can help.
We offer tailored training and support packages to ensure schools and systems:
- Norm around expectations: Build consistency in how the rubric is used across classrooms.
- Develop coaching capacity: Equip leaders to use the rubric as a tool for meaningful teacher development.
- Customize for your context: Adapt the rubric to align with the unique needs and goals of your school or district.
Our team has a proven track record of helping educators implement tools like this successfully, driving real change in teaching and learning.
Ready to Get Started?
The Instructional Excellence Rubric is available for free download:
Let us help you bring it to life. Reach out to Jess to schedule a call!
Together, we can ensure every child experiences the excellent instruction they deserve.