Everything You Need to Know About the Danielson Framework for Teachers' Formal Observations
[Image Description: The infographic titled "UNDERSTANDING THE FOUR DOMAINS" with a gray text box and 2 by 2 grid of four color-coded panels alternating between light green and orange. "DOMAIN 1: PLANNING AND PREP" is in center-aligned gray text followed by "Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy, Demonstrating Knowledge of Students Setting Instructional outcomes, Demonstrating Knowledge of Resources, Designing Coherent Instruction, Designing Student Assessments" is listed in left-aligned gray text in a light green panel. "DOMAIN 2: CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT" is in center-aligned gray text followed by "Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport, Establishing a Culture for Learning, Managing Classroom Procedures, Managing Student Behavior, Organizing Physical Space" is listed in left-aligned gray text in an orange panel. "DOMAIN 3: INSTRUCTION" is in center-aligned gray text followed by "Communicating with Students, Using Questioning and Discussion Techniques, Engaging Students in Learning, Using Assessment in Instruction, Demonstrating Flexibility and Responsiveness" is listed in left-aligned gray text in an orange panel. "DOMAIN 4: PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES" is in center-aligned gray text followed by "Reflecting on Teaching, Maintaining Accurate Records, Communicating with Families, Participating in the Professional Community, Growing and Developing Professionally, Showing Professionalism" is in left-aligned gray text in a light green panel.]
The Danielson Framework for Teacher Observation created by Charlotte Danielson is actually not meant to be an evaluation tool even though it is part of your evaluation. It is an effective growth tool for teachers. It is important for administrators to set the tone ahead of time for what they are looking for and why when evaluating teachers. When it comes time for teachers to be observed, their brains should be in the right place. Everything is about growth meaning what teachers are doing, what is working well, and what they could do differently. Typically, instructional coaches and administrators will come into teachers' classrooms to observe them for teacher evaluations. The ideal point of this is for them to give teachers suggestions. If all teachers are judged by their best teaching moment, they are all distinguished and if all of teachers are judged by their worst teaching moment, they are all unsatisfactory; however, the picture is actually lots of different vignettes over time that makes teachers good or not good in the moment of what they are doing. So, no teacher is distinguished or unsatisfactory all of the time because no one is perfect, and all employees are always growing their professional skills.
Teachers can plan beautiful lessons. They could spend hours planning it and be so excited to deliver it, but then, it may not work out. This happens to every teacher all of the time. The important part is the conversation, the reflection, and how teachers can adjust to doing things differently next time. So, everyone in the education field should look at the Danielson Framework as a growth tool. Ideally, instructional coaches, mentors, and administrators should support teachers so that they can continue to improve. That is what all educators should want students to do and that is what we need to model continuous improvement through our own actions.
It is valid and common for new and veteran teachers to have mixed emotions about their evaluations, such as being nervous, confident, or both. The process can be overwhelming. This is especially true if they are currently experiencing workplace bullying and/or a lack of support from paraprofessionals and administrators and/or have experienced this in their prior years of teaching. Trust me since I have been there and get those bad flashbacks every year during evaluation season along with having many productive evaluations. So, if this is you or ever becomes you, do the following:
- Take some deep breaths before you go into that evaluation meeting.
- Drink some water or hot tea.
- Tell yourself that you are not surrounded by that toxicity anymore for a reason (if that is the case) to ground yourself in the present.
- Tell yourself that you are safe now (if that is the case) as an additional way to ground yourself in the present.
- Remind yourself that every employee in any job receives evaluations for the purpose of professional self-growth.
- Keep an open mind that you might receive some positive feedback about what you do well and even some helpful advice making it a productive meeting this time.
- Be kind to yourself.
- Remind yourself about why you started doing what you are doing.
- You are already distinguished yourself, especially since you have gone through a difficult process and emerged. Instructional coaches and administrators are supposed to be there to help you continually grow as we want students to do and that is what we need to model for them through our actions. We can model continuous improvement.
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The Danielson Framework for Teacher Observation is a tool for effective teacher evaluation and growth. The inventor named Charlotte Danielson says that it was never meant to be evaluative; however, it was as if the state of Pennsylvania said, "Let's take this tool that was not meant to be evaluative and use it for evaluation!" and the framework has twenty-two components, which is a lot! No teacher is distinguished in twenty-two components including veteran teachers. I have been a teacher for nine years, know multiple teachers with 20-30+ years of experience who have had great and not-so-great days and moments. The purpose of the Danielson Framework is to inform teaching practices and improve. The main parts of the Danielson Framework are its structure, characteristics of excellent teachers, evidence and opinion, and the clinical supervision level.
Pennsylvania teachers are required to answer and Pre-Observation and Post-Observation reflection questions on PAETEP for each of their formal observations as a state requirement. Some people in the education field get frustrated by the usage of evaluations/professional development because it is repetitive; however, it is good to be repetitive because practice makes progress.
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The state of Pennsylvania receives an annual report about how many professional educators are employed in specific school districts along with how many of them scored satisfactory and unsatisfactory. Teachers' names receive satisfactory or unsatisfactory on this part of their evaluation and that is it. So, when you are stressing out about an observation, you do not need to put on a dog and pony show (a fake overly elaborate presentation). If your rubric says that there are some areas that you did really well and need to work on, that is the point because everyone has areas that they need to work on to work with their colleagues. Teaching can be very lonely around February when teachers are in their classrooms with those darlings for seven hours per day and things get stressful. Opportunities for teachers to collaborate with their colleagues, administrators, and instructional coaches are meant to be helpful. This is a joint task, but it can be a really lonely one. So, that is why these opportunities are so valuable. Again, what goes to the state is satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Almost everybody in the state is satisfactory, but not all the time. Some are really accomplished, and some people have things to work on, but the goal is for teachers to wind up being satisfactory overall. Although the Danielson Framework is our model, almost no one scores overall needs improvement or unsatisfactory. It is really hard to get there because it is not set up that way.
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The four domains of the Danielson Framework for Teacher Observation include the following:
- Planning and Preparation
- Classroom Environment
- Instruction
- Professional Responsibilities
There are some college graduates with education degrees who have been evaluated with this tool in student teaching prior to landing their first paid teacher job and I was one of them. The Danielson Framework is the document by which teachers evaluate themselves and how they get evaluated by administrators. Please read the chart below for what the differences between satisfactory, unsatisfactory, needs improvement, proficient, and distinguished look like:
It worth mentioning that 1B is demonstrating knowledge in students. Unsatisfactory teachers do not have special knowledge about students, how they learn, and do not see it as valuable. There are very few people who go into education and do not see that as valuable. When you look as basic, the teacher has a general knowledge about how students learn and tries to incorporate that in a whole group. Proficient is when the teacher sees value in the characteristics and traits of their students and tries to apply it in small groups. That is hard. That is a lot of work, especially when doing it regularly. Panorama Education can be a helpful technological resource for this matter because it comes up with data really quickly and provides suggestive groups. While it is important to limit screen time for brain development, there such a thing as a healthy balance between screen time and nonelectronic activity. In fact, educational technology can help teachers be more efficient in their planning.
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Proficient is when teachers have looked at the data for their students and they have been able to group as the students who need some extra work, the students who just need to practice, and the students who need extra support. That is proficient. Proficient is hard. It is not satisfactory. It is hard. To be proficient is really strong. Distinguished is when a teacher is planning for individual students based on their information. If you are a middle school or high school teacher who sees one hundred thirty students per day or a specials teacher who sees four hundred fifty students in a four-to-six-day cycle, you might be planning for a few individuals because they have made themselves known, but you are not planning for individual students regularly in these placements. There is not enough time for teachers in these placements to be able to do this consistently.
The part that is almost always undistinguished is the students creating, contributing, or holding themselves and other classmates accountable. Typically, students in high school Life Skills Support classrooms help write the rules for their classroom and hold each other accountable in a way that is not seen in most high school classrooms. For example, it may be as literal as Anna saying, "You are supposed to raise your hand!" to Ryan. They are literally holding each other accountable. That is usually not seen the majority of nowhere else in high school. When you go into an Advanced Placement (AP) course that students have selected or been selected for because of their giftedness or talent, it common for the population of learners in these classrooms to be harder on each other than any teacher would ever be on them. Therefore, so much of distinguished has to do with the students taking ownership and driving it. When teachers get there every once and a while, they should be celebrated and celebrating. That is really high level.
I am an alumnus of an educationally influential school district and taught there when I was a first-year Special Education Teacher. Besides compliance being a behavioral goal, I believe that it is important to work towards students being engaged as well as one of my professional philosophies. It is common for many educators to assume that students are engaged; however, many research studies have shown that when schools conduct surveys halfway through or at the end of the school year, the students state otherwise. While this may come off as disheartening, this is really helpful feedback. It is great when students comply when teachers tell them what to do; yet the question is how is learning meaningful to them? This is quite the challenge. My academically gifted brother has a background in biomedical engineering. So, my brother, parents, and I always laugh and say that there is nothing harder than higher mathematics and science because nobody cares unless they have aspirations to work in careers that need these courses will prepare them for; nevertheless, these courses are required as part of grade level curriculum for all general education students regardless of their career choices and the majority of them hate it and do not care. So, those required courses can be such a challenge. Although if teachers blow a few things up and relate it to something in their actual lives, the students are most likely hooked. They have examples of real-life applications and the higher level the academic work gets, the harder that is, but if you can relate it to why a person's hair fell out when they got their hair dyed, that is chemistry. Another example engaging chemistry lesson can be about why a cake exploded or did not explode when baking it. Teachers need to hook students with something that is meaningful to them to increase student engagement, which is hard in all subject areas.
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There are some students who will never feel comfortable speaking in front of their class and every teacher should always keep in mind that behavior is communication. So, it is important for teachers to take some time to think about how to engage them and know what they are thinking. When some students exhibit a lack of participation in class discussions, there is a reason for this, and it is not always that they do not want to do participate or rudeness. This is especially true among students in the disability community. A group conversation moves fast. Multiple people, quick exchanges, no open moments. A few words go missing and for a person who is deaf or hard of hearing, the meaning has to be rebuilt from context. Students on the autism spectrum/autistic students/students with autism, Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), learning disabilities (LD), and Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) can relate to this as well. These neurodiverse populations of learners frequently struggle with slow processing speed, which "affects how students use their executive skills" and poor working memory, which "lets us keep information in mind to use during a task" (Rosen & Braaten 2026). That slow processing of what was just said, and its meanings takes a second or two, or sometimes longer than a minute, hour, or even days later (maybe even months!!) and nobody can see it happening because its executive functioning in the brain's control center. In fact, these disabilities often show up as invisible disabilities meaning that they are not obvious just by looking at or watching people who have them. "When it takes longer to process information, it takes longer to solve problems, respond to situations, and perform tasks" (Rosen & Braaten 2026). To elaborate, "if students process information slowly, they aren't able to use those skills as quickly as they need to" because "the information wasn't processed fast enough to be remembered and used" (Rosen & Braaten 2026). By the time other people's statements have been made in a discussion and there's something worth adding, the group has already moved on. So, they do not want to interrupt to appear rude, especially since typically they are already constantly judged for interrupting at any opening, even a bad one as part of their challenges with interpreting social cues and paying attention. Furthermore, people on the autism spectrum/autistic people/people with autism, ADHD, LDs, and APD are also often mentally fatigued at the end of every day after attempting to interpret social cues and hyperfocus as much as possible all day. So, they are doing the best they can to communicate. There's a version of this that gets called rude and a version of that gets called access.
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- What is a Learning Disability (LD)?
- Book Review: "Fish in a Tree" written by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
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- Facing Imposter Syndrome as a Public Speaker with an Invisible Disability
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One strategy that can support this diverse group of learners is wait time, which is leaving a long pause to provides students of all differences with chances to participate; however, some students will wait teachers out meaning that they have learned to wait longer than the teacher can wait in the interest of time. Another strategy is providing a mixed group of introverts and extroverts with the choices to share their answers verbally or in writing as multiple means of participation. They can write their answer on a white board paddle or loose-leaf paper at their desk and raise it in front of them to show their understanding. This provides a safe space for them to participate to prevent them from feeling embarrassed if they state the wrong answer. A third strategy that research has shown to be beneficial is pairs and triads using the Think-Pair-Share strategy. Research studies show that when teachers assign introverted students to complete classwork with a minimum of two to three peers, "significantly lowers state anxiety and increases subsequent willingness to participate compared to direct whole-class questioning" (Mundelsee & Jurkowski 2021). This is because "validating own notes with a partner reduces state anxiety" whereas "state anxiety mediates the effects on hand raising when not validating any notes" (Mundelsee & Jurkowski 2021). The research studies also state that "hand raising frequencies increase after exchanging ideas with a partner, social evaluative concerns are the main reason why shy students participate less, and shy students participate less frequently, but also benefit from collaboration" (Mundelsee & Jurkowski 2021). To quote the famous saying, "If they cannot learn the way we teach, we should teach the way they learn." In other words, as students learn better, they do better.
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Teachers who score needs improvement/basic for Domain 3: Instruction accept their success or failure of students but have a limited number of strategies to adjust a lesson and their adjustments are usually minimal and ineffective. Teachers who score proficient for Domain 3: Instruction demonstrate flexibility and responsiveness. They are able to accommodate to any question at the time, have a variety of different strategies available, can adjust a lesson at any minor moment, and are able to react quickly also known as "think on their feet", which is hard. The more frequently teachers do these things and attend professional development trainings to learn strategies, the better they will get at them. Teachers who score distinguished in Domain 3: Instruction bring a broad repertoire that they learned over time. Nobody is just going to develop these strategies overnight.
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Teachers who score proficient for Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities can say actual references and moments in time to support their judgment of the lesson itself and provides evidence about those findings. Teachers who score needs improvement/basic for Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities have no specific suggestions or only general suggestions about how a lesson could be improved. It is all evidence-based. Opinions do not matter. The teacher's opinion should only matter to anyone but the teacher. It is the evidence that tells teachers what they are doing well and where they need to continue to grow. When a teacher teaches a lesson where they demonstrate proficiency as opposed to just basic, they are usually able to know if it went well or if it did not go well. What makes a teacher proficient is knowing why and having specific examples of what went well, such as all or most students answering correctly in the exit tickets or discussion questions. A teacher who scores proficient may also pull the students who did not understand the lesson and provide them with teaching. It is worth mentioning that students' failures are not always a reflection of teachers' failures. While students' failures can be because of a lack of clear instruction, it can also be because of things that are outside of a teacher's circle of control. Common examples of this include curriculum programs that are not developmentally appropriate for individual students or students struggling in certain subject areas because of their disability or language barrier. While accommodations, modifications, Specially Designed Instructions (SDI), Special Education (SE) placements, and Related Services as part of IEPs are functional and crucial, they do not take away disabilities and language barriers. Their disability-related characteristics are involuntary, permanent, and frequently and naturally wax and wane meaning that they show up in a unpredictable repetitive cycle of struggles and strengths climaxing with falling points off and on. As it happens, IQ, which is short for Intelligence Quotient, plays a major role in these episodes since IQ can go up and down by fifteen points or more, especially during childhood and adolescence or due to specific life events. Therefore, no one can control any of these things and making the best of pivoting and accepting what they can and cannot control is all that they can do.
If an excellent teacher were to be observed either in a classroom or professional development, there are numerous things that might be seen or heard in the presence of it. The observers would be able to feel a vibe that the teacher is comfortable with the way that they approach the class and at ease - not triggered by a student who is really frustrated or having a hard time. They are competent in their understanding of the material that they are teaching or have a magic presence in the way that they engage the students. Students are like sponges meaning that they absorb information and behaviors that they observe in adults in their environments. Students can feed off of that energy whether it is positive or negative and feel that vibe in their teachers' classrooms. There is a lot of work experience that leads to that moment, and it is really hard to get there. There is a ton of work that goes into that even though it seems to run so smoothly. Students know when an adult is just going through the motions versus an adult who truly wants to be there. Students are extremely bored when a teacher says, "Here's a worksheet" and is just like "whatever" whereas they feed off of the positive energy when the lesson is more interactive. When students are asking questions about the assignment that they are working on no matter what it is, this shows that they are engaged, care about the topic, and take what they are doing seriously. In addition to engagement, one of the nice things is when students say that their teachers care about them and when their families say that the teachers are invested in them and their children no matter how old the students are. It is crucial when both students and their families consistently talk about their relationship with teachers and how they feel about them. This is an important strength to have when teachers are joining a team.
So, there are vignettes of pieces of evidence of each domain listed below. It is important to look at what the evidence tells us. Danielson says that these pieces of evidence fit into certain domains and certain components of the domains. Sometimes one piece of evidence can fit into multiple domains and what I like about Danielson is that it is constantly evolving. So, even though Danielson has these four domains, she now has clusters and the clusters are things in one, two, three, and four that are related over the domains. I like that because it is complex. It is not simple check, check, check. Teachers are evaluating themselves by checklist.
Related Links:
- The Danielson Framework Clusters - https://danielsongroup.org/resources/framework-clusters/
Example #1 - The flexible seating options in Mx. T's classroom are arranged in groups with a choice of a bean bag or desk. Which domain or component do you think would be a piece of evidence? Domain 1 & 2
Example #2 - Ms. A was unable to locate her list of which students returned their permission slips. Which domain or component do you think would be a piece of evidence? Domain 4
Example #3 - Ms. C assigns her students to watch a clip. They have a video guide with factual, interpretative, and analytic questions and work in pairs to respond to the questions. Which domain or component do you think would be a piece of evidence? Domains 1 & 3 (FYI This information also tells the observer something about her plan. So, Domain 1 is related as well. That is where the clusters come in.)
Example #4 - After Mr. M's first hour Geography class, he says that it was successful because every student scored an A on the quiz. Which domain or component do you think would be a piece of evidence? Domain 4
Example #5 - Mx. B has designed a rubric for students that identifies key elements of good presentation and three levels of performance. Which domain or component do you think would be a piece of evidence? Domain 3
Example #6 - The students work on a brief assignment when they enter the classroom, Mr. L takes attendance. Which domain or component do you think would be a piece of evidence? Domain 3
Example #7 - The students in Ms. H's math class are looking puzzled (confused) after she provides an explanation slope. Instead of assigning a worksheet as she planned, she provides a different approach to modify the concept. Which domain or component do you think would be a piece of evidence? Domain 3
Example #8 - Mx. E plans to give the students a website to explore as an extended learning activity about understanding the judicial system. Which domain or component do you think would be a piece of evidence? Domains 1 and 3
Example #9 - Ms. R plans to create cooperative groups that will each include two English Language Learners (ELL) and two autistic students for one of her flexible group assignments. Which domain or component do you think would be a piece of evidence? Domain 1, 2, 3 (The planning and the delivery are so interrelated that can make them fit in both and it is really more about the fact that she plans to create. It sits in Domains 2 and 3 when she delivers it.)
So, when teachers are planning to be observed, they should include evidence. Again, it is not about administrators saying, "I thought you did a great job" to teachers. Administrators and teachers need to be able to cite specific things that they observed because everyone has different perspectives. People do not always see everything that is going on classrooms. Just like an administrator may observe things that a teacher did not observe, a teacher may observe things that an administrator did not observe. That is why the Pre-Observation and Post-Observation conferences are so important and that is why is important for teachers to cite evidence about the decisions that they made for their lessons ahead of time. One of the reflection questions in PAETEP is "What information did you gain from families of students that led to the decision that you made in this particular lesson?" That is a hard question that many teachers and administrators disagree with the wording of because it does not let teachers think about the intentionality of their planning or the importance of their reflections; so, there have been administrators who have said to me, "What have you learned from families that impacted the way that you taught this particular lesson?" So, this refers to teachers receiving emails and messages on school approved communication apps (e.g. TadPoles, Talking Points) and attending Back to School Night, parent-teacher conferences, and IEP meetings. Teachers are learning about their students through these interactions and treat period 1 different than they treat period 4 because the backgrounds and developmental levels of the students in the class and information that families are communicating to them. So, when teachers see this hard question, there are better questions that will help them write better answers for it because the reflection is the most important thing. It can be artifacts like the rubric or things that the students have made that show mastery to the teachers and administrators. It is not about opinion or bias. It is just the stuff that teachers and administrators can actually see, hear, and know. so, for instance, evidence is observable - not influenced by perspective or even value to words and does not draw conclusions. Opinions make inferences, depend on my perspective, include a value to words, and draw conclusions. This does not mean that teachers and administrators are not going to draw conclusions. It is that teachers' formal observations are only supposed to be based on evidence. So, an example is when you walk in a room and you feel that energy or vibe, which is great, but administrators need to be able to list actual observable things that led to that because it does not just happen. So, there is the Pre-Observation, Observation, and Post-Observation. It should happen within a two-week span. Any longer than that and it loses its value.
When I was a first-year Autism Support Teacher, my school district, the Pre-Observation conference was the day before the Observation and the Post-Observation conference was two to five instructional days after the Observation; however, sometimes teachers and administrators' schedules do not allow for that because things come up. There are questions that Pennsylvania teachers need to fill out in PAETEP before the Pre-Observation conference. It is good for teachers to have them filled out within at least twenty-four hours before their administrator comes to observe. Pennsylvania teachers have their Pre-Observation conference with their principal or vice principal who will be the observer three times per school year. Administrators should not assign a number until after they meet with the teacher because it is important to keep an open mind about what planning needs to be elaborated upon through inquiry. To reiterate, ideally, these conferences are supposed to be about observations and growth. Focus on your reflections and what you are learning and how administrators can help you grow professionally instead of sweating the numbers. It is meant to be a conversation about what teachers are doing well and what they could do better.
Educator Effectiveness Observation and Practice: Framework for Evaluation: Classroom Teacher written by the Pennsylvania Department of Education is a thirty-two-page long framework handbook that has really useful descriptors and discussion prompts and questions. These prompts and evidence part really help administrators think about what they are trying to do and what kinds of evidence might be provided. So, this is a great tool to use to read as Pennsylvania Teachers answer the Pre-Observation and Post-Observation questions in PAETEP because it helps to understand what belongs here. As wonderful as that is, it is also a lot. It can help teachers create more professional answers that elaborate on what they are actually doing instead of a one word/sentence answer. It is important for teachers to think about how they can provide more thoughtful, insightful answers and evidence. So, if the question says, "What have you learned from families that impacted the way that you taught this particular lesson?", unless you learned something that actually caused you to plan that lesson, how can teachers give better answers? What is the strategy that you use that better answers when you are answering questions related to this? A very specific example related to evidence is when my classmates and I were required to record ourselves teaching on our phone cameras during student teaching. Then, my professor and I would watch the video together to analyze how much teacher and student talk there was along with the lesson's wins and areas of improvement. Research studies have shown that when teachers record themselves as an evidence-based practice, it can remind them of certain times where the lesson went well and areas of improvement (). This puts less pressure on the teacher to go as far as remembering what happened and what evidence occurred during the lesson. There so many different pieces of evidence and the more evidence teachers give related to each domain, the more comfortable they will feel. That is amazing strategy because again, our perception is not always accurate. We may think that we are asking many effective questions and that the students are doing well; however, later, we find out that the evidence shows that what was happening was not how they perceived it to be.
To reiterate, proficient is not satisfactory. It is way above that. It is hard to be proficient in most domains most of the time because it is complex. Be careful. If you rate yourself as distinguished overall in everything, you are going to have a hard time producing that much evidence. What Danielson says that we say all of time is that we live in proficient and we visit distinguished. Sometimes we visit needs improvement/basic and when teachers are early in your career, there can be more needs improvements/basics, which does not guarantee that they are not doing a good job. It is just strengths and areas to work on, which every teacher should always have. It has to be driven by evidence and remember that distinguished often requires students to drive the lessons and to facilitate the line, which is really hard.
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Think about what way the Danielson Framework for teaching can benefit you as a professional teacher and what aspects of this framework might be helpful for you and why. Personally, I know that the Danielson Framework can help me bridge the gap for where I am versus where I want to be, especially with classroom management and providing consistency with managing student behaviors. This can really help me specifically figure out where I am at in different categories. It can help me to continue to grow my teacher skills on a daily basis. I really appreciate the structure of the Danielson Framework because as a Special Education Teacher, I want to do well in my job and have several things on my mind. So, having all of these considerations in an organized way that is easy to digest and helpful to refer back to as reminders of what to consider when planning my lessons. It is like a rubric that provides teachers with very clear expectations and initiates thoughtful planning. It also guides teachers' self-reflections in the Post Observation stage to help them grow their knowledge in the subject areas that they teach and create professional goals for themselves. It is easy for first year teachers to want to be amazing and want to do everything great, but then, there is what is realistic versus pragmatic. No teacher is basic in everything. If I was judged by my best lesson ever, I would be Teacher of the Year and if I was judged by my worst lesson ever, I might be on the unemployment line. So, the truth is that every teacher is somewhere in the middle all of the time. I also think that it is important for all teachers to have a growth mindset, which they should want to do with their students of all ages and differences. It is crucial for teachers to teach students to have growth mindsets to make positive contributions to their social-emotional development and have it in themselves as well to model it for growing minds.
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Instructional coaches are supposed to help teachers when they are struggling in particular areas. All schools should be really committed to providing that support. So, they should be really willing to come and watch and plan with teachers and give suggestions. They are actually targeted for it and they are so good. So, teachers should utilize instructional coaches as much as they can. Teachers will usually receive three to four formal observations conducted by administrators per school year. A good rule of thumb (good idea) for administrators who conduct teachers' formal observations is to let teachers select which period to schedule it according to which day and time works best for both of them so that they do not have to do it with "that class"🤣 Typically, administrators will ask middle and high school teachers who teach multiple courses and groups of students to switch it up a little bit. Many elementary schools are focusing on structured literacy. So, I guarantee that will be at least some of the general education teachers' visits; however, all teachers should get some choices for the purpose of a sense of autonomy and predictability whereas walk-throughs will occur without prior notice because they are nonevaluative. Research studies have shown that building relationships with students tends to be one of teachers' strengths whereas student engagement is one of their areas of growth. It is important for teachers and administrators to look at student engagement in multiple classes throughout the school year.
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Pre-Observation and Post-Observation conferences are usually a minimum of thirty minutes. Expect calendar invites for these conferences from administrators, or their Administrative Assistants ahead of time. These conferences are planned in advance, laid out, and not just somebody showing up.
It is important for teachers to prepare and anticipate what kinds of evidence administrators would be expecting to see. Typically, principals and vice principals who are building administrators will know a lot more about what teachers are doing than when a Curriculum Specialist, Assistant Superintendent, or Superintendent observes. Furthermore, peer coaches and mentors will know a lot more about your classroom than building administrators. When an administrator asks a question about the component about family engagement in Domain 4, a teacher who teaches science may provide the following answer: "I was at the STEM Night and Science Fair and sent out newsletters to their families encouraging them to attend and the results of the events." A description like this of what the teacher did can be sufficient enough for an Assistant Superintendent or Superintendent without needing to see the newsletters; however, Assistant Superintendents or Superintendents would not know that teachers did these things because they are not in the building all of the time since they are in charge of supervising several schools in the district and some school districts are huge! My school district has 15 elementary schools, 5 middle schools, and 3 high schools! That is a TOTAL OF 23 SCHOOLS!!!!
When it comes to talking about assessment to inform your next lesson, you do not need to attach the assessments or the spreadsheet. You just need to communicate the percentage of students who mastered the concept to the administrator so that the next day you know which students need a review while other students are completing independent work. The explanation of what is being learned and the data that the teacher is using is fine. Teachers do not need to attach examples of everything. That would be a waste of teachers' time, and they have too much to do and their time is too important.
As the year goes on, document any involvement in activities outside of your contract. This includes being involved in a building team responsible for decision-making for something like a Multicultural Night, mini-THON or volunteering your time after school for any extracurricular student activity (e.g. coaching, clubs). Anything that you do above and beyond your day, such as reaching out to parents, hosting after school workshops to show the parents what structured literacy, or tutoring also counts. Keep track of those activities in a notebook or digital document and include them in your final evaluation for Domain 4. Keep in the back of your mind that these are things that you are doing as the teacher.
It is important for administrators and mentors to engage adults in their own professional development and professional growth. Remember that even when administrators are genuinely reassuring and supportive, it is a valid feeling for teachers to feel a little nervous when they are being formally observed and many teachers put so much planning into it because they care about doing well; however, avoid turning it into a dog and pony show (fake overly elaborate presentation) and just be your professional self. Lastly, most importantly, always be kind to your students and yourself.
Key takeaways:
- No teacher lives in distinguished.
- It is essential for all teachers to understand all 4 Domains of the Danielson Framework.
- We need evidence.
- The conversations that we have are the most important part of formal observations.
To learn more about the Danielson Framework, visit the following website linked below:
To learn more about formal observations for certified teachers in the state of Pennsylvania, I highly recommend the following books:
- Educator Effectiveness Observation & Practice: Framework for Evaluation: Classroom Teacher written by the Pennsylvania Department of Education - file:///C:/Users/owner/Downloads/Framework%20for%20Observation%20&%20Practice%20%E2%80%93%20Classroom%20Teacher%20UA.pdf
- Data Wise: Educators Collaborating So Each Student Thrives: Third Edition written by Kathryn Parker Boudett and Candice Bocalla with a foreword by Elizabeth A. City and Richard J. Murnane
To learn more about the Danielson Framework as a Pennsylvania state requirement under Act 13 of 2020, click on the following links below:
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Citations
1. Boudett, K. P., Bocalla, C., City, E. A., & Murnane, R. J. (2025). Data Wise: Educators Collaborating So Each Student Thrives: Third Edition. Harvard Education Press.
2. Mundelsee, L. & Jurkowski, S. (6 May 2021). Think and pair before share: Effects of collaboration on students in-class participation. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1041608021000522
3. Rosen, P. & Braaten, E. (2026). The connection between slow processing speed and executive function. https://www.understood.org/en/articles/the-connection-between-slow-processing-speed-and-executive-function
4. The Danielson Group. (2026). Framework Clusters. https://danielsongroup.org/resources/framework-clusters/
5. The RethinkEd Team. (5 Jul. 2017). Understanding the Danielson Framework in Special Education. https://www.rethinked.com/resources/understanding-danielson-framework-special-education/
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