How do I balance classroom walkthroughs with formal teacher evaluations?
They're not separate activities — they're part of the same practice. Frequent walkthroughs give you the evidence base that makes formal evaluations fair, informed, and defensible. Without regular classroom presence, you're writing evaluations based on one or two staged performances.
The strategic move is recognizing that not all teachers need the same level of evaluative attention. In a typical building, a relatively small percentage of your staff will require intensive documentation and support — new teachers still finding their footing and experienced teachers whose practice isn't meeting standards. They deserve the lion's share of your evaluative energy. For the majority of your staff, the evidence you gather through regular visits is more than sufficient to write accurate, well-supported evaluations.
The shift in mindset is important: you don't "turn on" your evaluator brain for formal observations and "turn it off" for walkthroughs. Everything you see in classrooms informs your professional judgment. That's not a conflict — it's a feature. The more you know, the fairer your evaluations will be.
I explore this balance in depth in Now We're Talking!, Day 17.
From the Book
Now We’re Talking! 21 Days to High-Performance Instructional Leadership
About the Author
Justin Baeder, PhD
Justin Baeder, PhD is Director of The Principal Center, where he helps senior leaders in K–12 organizations build capacity for instructional leadership. A former principal in Seattle Public Schools, he is the creator of the Instructional Leadership Challenge, which has helped more than 10,000 school leaders in 50 countries around the world:
- Confidently get into classrooms every day
- Have feedback conversations that change teacher practice
- Discover their best opportunities for school improvement
Dr. Baeder directs the Instructional Leadership Association, the premiere professional membership for school leaders, and is the author of three Solution Tree books on instructional leadership:
- Now We’re Talking! 21 Days to High-Performance Instructional Leadership
- Mapping Professional Practice: How to Develop Instructional Frameworks to Support Teacher Growth (with Heather Bell-Williams)
- Cultivate and Activate: Building Teacher Capacity for Instructional Leadership (with Keith Fickel)
Justin is the host of Principal Center Radio, a long-running audio podcast featuring more than 400 education thought leaders and more than 500 books, as well as The Teaching Show and The Eduleadership Show. A prolific education commentator, he has more than 250,000 followers and 30,000,000 annual impressions on social media, and is frequently consulted by major media outlets on issues of education research, policy, and practice.
As a consultant, trainer, and speaker, Dr. Baeder has worked onsite with groups across the US, Canada, and Central America, and virtually with groups across the Middle East, Australia, and around the world. He is a frequent speaker at conferences, and regularly provides administrator professional development on classroom walkthroughs, teacher evaluation, and instructional leadership.
He holds a PhD in Educational Leadership & Policy Studies from the University of Washington and an MEd in Curriculum & Instruction from Seattle University, and is a graduate of the Danforth Program for Educational Leadership at UW.