Collaborative Peer Coaching That Improves Instruction The 2 + 2 Performance Appraisal Model

Based on frequent, mutual feedback from peers, students and administrators, the 2+2 method increases meaningful contact and collaboration between teachers. It also allows for administrator participation in a less threatening context than the traditional performance appraisal, greatly reducing teachers′ levels of anxiety and self-doubt, which in turn leads to increased job-satisfaction.

"This book should be required reading for all teachers and administrators seriously seeking ways to engage teachers in their own professional development and learning."
Rudolph F. Crew, Former Chancellor
New York City Schools

"The book is an action-oriented game plan to improve teachers′ performance-designed, initiated, and implemented by teachers. It tackles one of education′s toughest issues-teacher isolation."
Anne Bryant, Executive Director
National School Boards Association

"The authors present a wonderfully simple idea for turning a school into a learning community. It is a powerful, growth-oriented strategy for creating instructional focus in a school."
Roy D. Nichols, Jr., Superintendent of Schools
Troup County (GA) Board of Education

Dramatically enhance teaching and learning by reviving teacher collaboration!

Behind a simple equation, 2 + 2, lies a rich yet realistic approach to enhancing teaching and learning. As Collaborative Peer Coaching That Improves Instruction demonstrates, the current method of job appraisal consists of sporadic classroom visits from school administrators that frequently serve to reinforce teacher isolation rather than promote professional development. In contrast, the 2 + 2 method, a practice where teachers visit each other′s classrooms long enough to provide two compliments and two suggestions for improvement, has not only been proven to enhance teaching skills and student learning, but has also increased job satisfaction by reviving productive teacher collaboration.

Through the presentation of detailed case studies that illustrate the authors′ actual experience implementing the program at an inner city school, this work chronicles how the 2 + 2 method:

Restores the vital connections between teachers and students, teachers and administrators, and teachers and teachers

Encourages teaching and learning to develop beyond what standardized tests reveal

Provides a low-cost, easy-to-implement program that is realistic, given teachers′ time constraints and limited school budgets

Transforms schools into cultures of collaborative teaching and learning

The 2 + 2 program is much more than a simple equation; it is a powerful tool that can revolutionize a school′s approach to teaching and learning.