Tools and Talk: Data, Conversation, and Action for Classroom and School Improvement

Ready-to-use tools kick start discussions about how to build responsive, brain-based classrooms, create engaging student tasks, and form a classroom community of respect and learning. Data-gathering tools begin to help teachers and coaches examine student engagement, how lesson and classroom design work together to support optimal learning, whether the school and classroom environment welcomes all students, and how well teachers are managing instructional processes. With an emphasis on strengthening supportive relationships rather than evaluation and a “gotcha” interaction, Murphy shows principals, assistant principals, instructional specialists, and anyone in a position to affect instruction how to gather and use data to improve teaching and contribute to school wide change.