Give every teacher a clear next step
Build an instructional framework, use it in coaching and peer observation, and support struggling teachers with a plan grounded in your district’s criteria. Includes 6 months of the Instructional Leadership Association, two 1:1 calls with Justin Baeder, and a signed copy of Mapping Professional Practice.
$599 · one payment
Why teachers stay stuck
Your district’s evaluation criteria describe what matters in broad terms, like “uses rigorous tasks” or “checks for understanding.” Teachers can agree with every word and still not know what to do differently tomorrow. An instructional framework fills in the detail: the key components of one practice, and what each looks like at four levels of fluency, from the teacher’s point of view.
What you’ll do
Find your focus
Look in classrooms. Visit classrooms and talk with teachers about their thinking to find your best improvement opportunity, looking upstream from your data at what teachers are actually doing.
Choose a high-leverage practice. Test each candidate against the book’s four criteria: high frequency, high variability, high impact, and high leverage. Ask the five whys to make sure you’re addressing a root cause and not a symptom.
Write your hypothesis and set the boundaries. State it as “If teachers…, then students…” Decide who the framework is for, whether one team, one department, or the whole school, and keep it to one to three pages. Bring your candidates to your kickoff call with Justin.
Build and test
Build the framework. Use the Framework Builder to name the key components and write the levels of fluency, starting with Fluent and working back.
Test it with fluent teachers. Visit the classrooms of teachers who are already fluent in the practice, and watch how they handle each key component. Then talk through your draft with them one-on-one, revise as you go, and test-drive it in feedback conversations before you present it to the team.
Put it to work
Coach toward it. Use the framework in classroom visits and feedback conversations, with Repertoire keeping track of every visit.
The Framework Builder
Build your first framework, step by step
The hardest part of the method in Mapping Professional Practice is the blank page: naming the 3–5 key components of a practice and writing four levels of fluency for each. The Framework Builder walks you through that process one step at a time, the way the book teaches it.
Interview. Describe what you’re seeing in classrooms. The Builder asks the questions a good coach would ask, helps you narrow your focus to one specific practice, and drafts your if-then hypothesis for you to confirm.
Draft. Get a starter framework with 3–5 key components and four levels of fluency, written from the teacher’s point of view. Edit any cell directly.
Refine. Ask for a review against the book’s quality criteria. Are the levels truly different from each other? Does Exemplary describe the practice itself, and not just more of it? Apply or reject each suggested edit.
Put it to work. Print a clean PDF for coaching conversations and peer observation, or start from a framework in the Framework Library.
The Builder takes away the blank page. Every decision stays with you.
Bonuses
Bonus 1
Use peer observation
The Peer Observation Protocol and 5x5 Observation Guide help teachers at every level grow by watching colleagues, with no stigma attached.
Bonus 2
Support a struggling teacher
Build a PIP on your district’s evaluation criteria with the Evidence-Driven PIP template, and use the framework to describe the path to improvement. The Letter of Reprimand template is included too.
What’s included
A signed copy of Mapping Professional Practice by Heather Bell-Williams and Justin Baeder
Now We’re Talking! in print and on audio, with Visit Notecards (if you don’t already have it)
6 months of the Instructional Leadership Association: Repertoire, Framework and the Framework Library, the Scoreboard, the Daily Planner, weekly ILS episodes, and the Instructional Leadership Challenge
Two bonuses: the Peer Observation Protocol and the Evidence-Driven PIP, plus the Letter of Reprimand template
Two 45-minute 1:1 calls with Justin: a kickoff call in your first 30 days, and a struggling-teacher call any time in your 6 months
How it works
Enroll by the deadline and you get access right away; your books ship within a few days. Your cohort officially starts the Monday after enrollment closes. Book your kickoff call within 30 days and your second call whenever you need it. After 6 months, continue your ILA membership at $99/month or $999/year, or enroll in Pathways again. The frameworks you build stay in your account either way.
Join the Waitlist
Enrollment is closed right now. Join the waitlist and we’ll email you when enrollment opens.
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Questions
Is this about teacher evaluation? Teachers are evaluated only on your district’s criteria. A framework gives teachers more specific guidance for growth, in coaching, in peer observation, and in the support you provide during a PIP.
I’m already an ILA member. Your 6 months are added to your membership, and your monthly billing pauses until they’re used up.
I’m outside the US and Canada. You’re welcome to enroll. We’ll contact you about shipping your books.
Can my team enroll? Yes. Each person enrolls separately.
Justin Baeder, PhD
Director, The Principal Center · Co-author of Mapping Professional Practice