Collaborative Peer Coaching That Improves Instruction

"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.

Dwight W. Allen, Ed.D., is the Eminent Professor of Educational Reform at Old Dominion University in Norfolk Virginia. He received his A.B. (with Distinction) in history, with honors in Humanities, from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. He continued at Stanford and completed both his M.A. and his Ed.D. in Education. Dwight is also heavily involved in global concerns and for more than 10 years served as the International Technical Advisor for the United Nations Development Program in China as well as a consultant to the Department of Defense Dependent Schools in Germany. He also serves or has served as a consultant for schools and universities in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, India, South Africa, Israel, Uganda, Malawi and Greece. He is the co-author (with his son, Douglas B. Allen, Ph.D.) of a companion volume to Making the 2 + 2 Performance Appraisal Connection that is being developed based upon the application of the 2 +2 model in the corporate sector. He is also the co-author of AMERICAN EDUCATION: The 100 Billion Dollar Challenge, (with Bill Cosby, Ph.D.) which was "ePublished" by Time Warner in 2000, and was named one of six non-fiction finalists in the International eBook Awards. In 2002, Dwight was named University Teacher of the Year by the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia 1n 2001, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, has honored him by establishing the Dwight W. Allen professorship of Educational Policy and Reform, also in 2001. Dwight is known as a leading proponent of reformed educational systems for the future, and has written literally scores of influential papers and magazine articles on all aspects of the topic. He is an in-demand speaker and has delivered hundreds of lectures on national and international platforms. He has been the recipient of numerous grants for studies of educational systems. Alyce C. LeBlanc, Ph.D., is the Curriculum Specialist for the School of Education at Capella University. In addition to teaching, she has developed numerous instructor-led graduate courses for web-based online delivery in the School of Education. Alyce has a particular interest in teacher preparation programs and currently has a lead role in the development of a new teacher leadership masters program at Capella University. Alyce initially studied music at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, and later at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik where she graduated with distinction in Piano Performance. She was a prizewinner in several international piano competitions. She furthered her studies at the University of Southern California, where she earned an M.S. in Systems Management, later completing her Ph.D. in Urban Services/Education at Old Dominion University. She has subsequently taught at Oberlin College, Old Dominion University, and National-Louis University in Germany. She has been active in teacher preparation programs, school reform issues, and has been a consultant to teachers and education leaders in the Czech Republic and China, as well as in the US. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and was recently presented the Harold Abel Outstanding Faculty Award at Capella University.