Halifax County Schools Superintendent Eric Cunningham and the system’s curriculum and instruction team completed the middle of year walkthrough.
The superintendent walkthrough approach is different from focusing on a single classroom.
It intends to create a districtwide picture of many small snapshots and is a strategy for providing a school, not an individual teacher, with feedback for what is going well and areas for improvement.
These walkthroughs follow a specific protocol, with time spent before each to identify and discuss the focus of the observations, followed by a debriefing among the principal and leadership team to identify elements that should be shared with teachers.
For example, a walkthrough component focuses on look-for conditions that enable students to improve their achievement and learning levels in classrooms.
“In my school visits across the district, I’m pleased with the incremental progress that we’re making towards achieving our end of year goals,” Cunningham said. “We’re currently in the third quarter of our school year and on the countdown to end-of-year assessments.”
The superintendent said, “I’m seeking innovative ways to coach beyond the waves of district challenges and classroom distractions and on to the work of conceiving, believing, and achieving the end of year academic goals ahead of us. Teachers must apply the ‘I do, you do, we do’ model to ensure that all instructional minutes are used effectively and efficiently.”
Halifax County Schools are dedicated to making school improvements to curriculum and teacher training/evaluation, the school system said. “In that sense, walkthroughs often focus on instructional quality, learning assessments, and teaching effectiveness. Research says that teachers have a significant, lifelong impact on their students. This impact involves teaching particular academic skills and, as importantly, fostering students’ self-esteem. Reinforcing self-esteem in the classroom is associated with increased motivation and learning.”
“Halifax County Schools are committed to encouraging not only our scholars but staff as well to strive for five — ready, resilient, respectful, triumphant, and proficient,” Cunningham said. “As a district, we’re in a position to make the most significant impact ever among a new decade of innovative schools.”
