From too slight to too stout, districts have long-struggled with the waist-lines of their observation/ evaluation rubrics, often swinging from one extreme to the other. In Fixing Classroom Observations, TNTP provides a glimpse as to how districts could create a healthy, "just-right" rubric alternative that even Goldilocks could approve of. They outline two "Must-Haves" for such an instrument: putting rubrics on a "diet" and assessing the content of the lesson in addition to how it is delivered. 

There is lots of pressure to get this right. As states adopt the Common Core State Standards and districts implement new high-stakes evaluation systems, finding a workable balance in the content and length of observation rubrics is ever more important.  While we've looked at a lot of observation rubrics--state, district and teacher prep--we have seen few that successfully find a just-right balance.

As we've come to expect from TNTP, they will walk the talk by releasing the rubric for public comment in early 2014 and plan to make the finalized rubric available for school district use under a Creative Commons license. 

They've certainly piqued our interest. If they also have yours and you would like to volunteer as a peer editor e-mail info@tntp.org.