Advancing Principals' Vision of 21st Century Instruction with Innovation Field Trips
By John Clemente and Naomi Cooperman

This past week, the New York City Department of Education announced that it will advance its plan to provide more autonomy to principals. With this exciting change comes the potential downside of principal isolation. In the same way that focusing on student outcomes can sometimes narrow teachers' vision to what is possible in their classrooms, school leaders sharply focused on their own buildings can forget to let good ideas from the outside in. 

There is no doubt that exchanging ideas with peers can inform principals' decision-making. Learning what strategies and models are working and what innovations are on the horizon can be powerful aids in advancing a leader's vision and strategic planning.

To best serve schools taking part in Teaching Matters' Partnership for School Innovation, we have been investigating the best ways for our school leaders to share and further their thinking. Guided by the success of the Empowerment Support Organization and excellent advice from Nigel Pugh, Deputy CEO of the Empowerment Support Organization, and Lisa Nielsen, Manhattan Office of Educational Technology Manager, we decided to adopt a model for collaboration entitled Instructional Rounds in Education (City, Elmore, Fiarman and Teitel, 2009.)

The rounds process derives from "grand rounds" or "medical rounds" used in teaching hospitals to develop doctors' diagnostic and treatment practice (Not so different than what you've seen on "ER" or Grey's Anatomy.") The model is based on the idea that practitioners solve common problems and improve their practice by working together. Everyone participates, from the experts to the novices, and everyone learns.

The educational version of this process is called "instructional rounds." Teaching Matters developed its Innovation Field Trips by adopting rounds' four key components: 

1. Stating the Problem of Practice -  the leader (in the host school) poses a challenge core to instruction that school is facing; this problem focuses the visit
2. Observing Practice - visiting leaders gather data on the problem of practice (teaching and learning) in classrooms
3. Observation Reflection - visiting leaders record observations and identify patterns of evidence
4. Observation Debrief - observations are processed; next steps and solutions are discussed.

Using this framework, we bring leaders together around core instructional issues that can be addressed through technology innovation. For visitors, this is an opportunity to get up close and personal to educational technology-based practices and strategies that their colleagues are launching, and that have potential for their schools as well.  For leaders in the host schools, this is a chance to confer with colleagues who can offer their experience and perspectives on teaching and learning. For all, the chance to raise and think through important issues can be invaluable.

We recently took two highly successful field trips to innovative New York City programs. At the NYC iSchool, Principal, Alisa Berger introduced visiting leaders to the ways high schools students engage in independent and project-focused learning. At School of One (SO1) in IS 228 Brooklyn, Jonathan Skolnick, SO1's Director of Field Operations, shared the school's technology-based approach to personalized learning and corresponding challenges related to expanding this new approach to instruction to 228's entire math department. 

There is still time for leaders interested in hosting or participating in Teaching Matters' Innovation Field Trips to join us. Through the generous support of The New York Community Trust, field trips will be conducted through 2010.  To participate, contact Naomi Cooperman, ncooperman@teachingmatters.org or John Clemente, jclemente@teachingmatters.org.