Harvard Education Press

Instructional Rounds in Education
A Network Approach to Improving Teaching and Learning

Elizabeth A. City, Richard F. Elmore, Sarah E. Fiarman, and Lee Teitel

Walk into any school in America and you will see adults who care deeply about their students and are doing the best they can every day to help students learn. But you will also see a high degree of variability among classrooms—much higher than in most other industrialized countries. Today we are asking schools to do something they have never done before—educate all students to high levels—yet we don’t know how to do that in every classroom for every child.

This book is intended to help education leaders and practitioners develop a shared understanding of what high-quality instruction looks like and what schools and districts need to do to support it. Inspired by the medical-rounds model used by physicians, the authors have pioneered a new form of professional learning known as instructional rounds networks. Through this process, educators develop a shared practice of observing, discussing, and analyzing learning and teaching.

Advance Praise:

“Listen up! Instructional Rounds redefines the teaching profession. There is no other book on school improvement like it. This is a powerful, specific, accessible treatment of what it means to get in the classroom in order to make a difference in the daily lives of teachers and their students.”
—Michael Fullan, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto

“At last, we have a book that moves school and district leaders closer to the classroom. The authors challenge the myth of leadership as an isolated, hierarchical exercise focused on grand plans and visions and bring us back where we belong—amid the complex reality of students’ and teachers’ daily lives. Full of practical, specific, and compelling evidence, Instructional Rounds in Education will have a profound influence on educational leaders who are willing to invest the time to observe, listen, and learn.”
—Douglas B. Reeves, founder, The Leadership and Learning Center

“In instructional rounds, the front-line work of improving classroom practice becomes everyone’s work. Drawing upon their experience in thousands of classrooms across the country, the authors provide clear direction to teachers, principals, central-office staff, superintendents, and others interested in forming school- or district-based networks with a laser-like focus on instruction. Instructional Rounds in Education is a powerful resource for anyone interested in working smarter to make instruction effective for all students.”
—Larry Leverett, executive director, Panasonic Foundation.

“By sharing real-life vignettes, the authors carefully detail the utilization of instructional rounds as a systematic and collaborative process to engage educators in meaningful reflections about what occurs daily in classrooms. Applause to City, Elmore, Fiarman, and Teitel for providing a step-by-step approach that will yield significant results for colleagues who choose to network and grow together.”
—Deborah S. Delisle, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ohio Department of Education

About the Authors:

Elizabeth A. City is Director of Instructional Strategy at the Executive Leadership Program for Educators at Harvard University and is a faculty member at Boston’s School Leadership Institute. Richard F. Elmore is the Gregory R. Anrig Professor of Educational Leadership at Harvard University. Sarah E. Fiarman is the acting principal of the Martin Luther King, Jr. School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lee Teitel is faculty senior associate of the Executive Leadership Program for Educators at the Harvard University.