From Observation to Action: Redesigning Schools through What We See

A Classroom Moment We Have All Seen Before

Mr. Arellano is halfway through a small group reading lesson. He leans in to help a student sound out a word, prompting her to break it into parts. Before she finishes, another student begins tapping his pencil and sliding out of his seat. Across his room, a third student calls his name, needing help logging into a reading assessment program. He stops, redirects his students, answers the questions, and then turns back to his small group. The first student has lost her place. The flow of the lesson is gone. He tries to pick it back up, but the moment has passed, and the group’s attention is scattered.

By the end of the observation, an administrator might write: “Limited teacher modeling. The instruction lacked coherence, practice opportunities, and needed to be more snappy. The teacher needs to improve the use of instructional time and classroom management.”

While none of these statements is incorrect, the summary of the observation is incomplete. We are not excusing bad execution of instructional practices, but what the observation notes do not capture is just as important. Mr. Arellano is teaching students with disabilities across three grade levels at once. His paraprofessional is out that day, and the materials he received from the general education team do not quite match where his students are. He also lost his planning time that morning to attend a parent conference. He is not only delivering instruction; he is making decisions within these constraints. Overlapping classroom responsibilities pulled him in multiple directions as he tried to sustain instruction.

We have seen this play out in many classrooms. In our debriefs with teachers, conversations often start with what went well and what did not. But as we talk, a different picture emerges. What looks like a lesson issue is often a set of competing demands the teacher is managing in real time. That shift changes how we interpret what we see and what needs to change to help the teacher.

If observation does not help us understand those constraints and tradeoffs, it will not help us improve instruction, student learning, and ultimately the impact of schools. This is where the lens changes. Classroom observation, when used differently, can move us beyond compliance to better understand instruction, working conditions teachers face, and how we may redesign schools.

We Are Observing More, but Only Checking Boxes

Walk into almost any school, and you will see observations happening everywhere. And yet, many teachers and leaders leave asking the same question: Now What?

Too often, observation becomes a compliance exercise. It tells us whether a teacher met expectations, but not why instruction looks the way it does or how to improve it. It produces ratings, but only a partial understanding of the types of support we can offer teachers.

As we all know, teaching does not happen in a vacuum. Time, curriculum, and resources shape what teachers can do in the moment. When observation is disconnected from how students actually experience instruction, it is hard to use it to make meaningful improvements. However, if observation is going to matter, it has to do more than evaluate teaching. It has to help us understand the nuances and conditions shaping instruction.

What Observation Reveals when We Dig Deeper

Instruction is shaped not only by teacher skill but also by the conditions in which teaching occurs. For school improvement, a more useful approach moves beyond summative evaluation of individual performance to understanding what is happening across classrooms and what may be shaping those patterns. To do that, we need to see how instruction unfolds clearly.

Without structure, observations rely on general impressions or may also be subject to our own biases. Structured observation tools help make instruction more visible by focusing on components that make classroom management, explicit instruction, or responsiveness to student learning effective. This creates a shared language for practice.

But having a solid structure is only the starting point. What matters is how we interpret what we see. When instruction feels disjointed, or when student practice opportunities are limited, the goal is not simply to fix the teacher with more professional development. A better question is: What is shaping these patterns, and what can we change to better support this teacher?

Looking across classrooms helps answer that question. When teachers struggle to sustain small groups or when interruptions are common, those patterns often point to bigger issues in staffing and resource allocation. In our initial story, leaders can start talking with Mr. Arellano about the day (e.g., who was available to help, what materials he had, and what else he was managing at the time). Those conversations often reveal what influenced how the lesson played out.

Improving instruction, then, means also improving the conditions around it. And those same conditions shape whether teachers can keep doing this work day after day without burning out. When demands outweigh support, teachers are stretched thin and forced to make constant tradeoffs. However, used this way, observation helps bring those pressures into view. It shows where support is missing and where teachers need relief or more training. In that sense, it can help leaders create a school environment that teachers can actually sustain, and students can succeed.

From Observation to Action

Observation becomes an innovation, not by adding more, but by using it intentionally. We can leverage technology to help leaders move from isolated classroom snapshots to a broader view across classrooms. Structured observation tools like POISE (Pua et al., 2021) or technology-based platforms such as COACHED, which integrates a feedback and observation system (Kennedy et al., 2017; Kunemund et al., 2021), can help organize notes, track patterns over time, and bring data together. Adding more observations takes time and resources. Instead of doing more, the goal is to connect what we see across classrooms to surface patterns that shape critical decision-making. In practice, we have seen schools and researchers partner to use these tools to capture real-time observation data and examine patterns in instruction, including how they relate to working conditions that shape them (Kunemund et al., 2021; Lillis et al., 2026). These insights can then inform next steps schoolwide.

What matters most is how those insights are used. When observations are shared across different education stakeholders (e.g., teachers, support staff, and administrators), they move beyond evaluation and become part of a school's ongoing improvement efforts. For example, during routines like lesson study or collaborative planning, observation data become shared evidence. Teams or dyads between general and special education teachers can use observation data to make sense of what they are seeing and decide what to try next. For education leaders, observation supports sensemaking, helping them connect what is happening across classrooms and decide what to change at the school level. They can review notes alongside student work to identify common challenges, then plan a response across levels of support (often called MTSS), such as helping teachers improve their core content knowledge, to adding more resources (e.g., paraprofessional, more planning time) where it matters the most.

This cycle of planning, teaching, observing, and reflecting helps teams build a shared understanding of what good instruction looks like and what teachers and students need. It also helps align instruction by focusing less on judgment and prescription and more on clearer, actionable next steps.

4 Ways Schools Can Use Observations Better

1. Look for patterns, not just ratings - Look across subjects, grade level, classroom contexts, not just one classroom. Where does instruction flourish and where does it tend to break down among teachers?

2. Name what might be behind the pattern - What could be driving this (e.g., staffing, schedules, materials, competing demands)?

3. Try one small change at a time - Tackle improving one working condition. This might mean protecting special education teachers’ instructional and planning time, adjusting coverage when staff is out, or using better-aligned materials.

4. Go back and observe again - Return to classrooms and observe again without judgment. Use what you see to start a conversation. Did the change make a difference?

Teachers and school leaders are being asked to do more with less. Observation cannot remain a compliance exercise. It has to help us understand what is happening in classrooms—and what conditions and patterns need to change. The question is no longer whether we observe, but whether we are willing to act on what we see and redesign schools in response.

Suggested Articles

Pua, D.J., Peyton, D.J., Brownell, M.T., Contesse, V.A., & Jones, N.D. (2021). Preservice observation in special education: A validation study. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 54(1), 6-19.

Kunemund, R. L., Kennedy, M. J., VanUitert, V. J., & McDonald, S. D. (2021). A multimedia option for delivering feedback and professional development to teachers. Journal of Special Education Technology, 37(2), 336–346.

Lillis, J., Bettini, E., Peyton, D. J., Hernández Flores, M. L., Shaheen, T., Santos, A. B., Pua, D., Koziarski, G., & Themelis, A. (2026). Working conditions and instructional decision-making among special educators teaching elementary students with emotional/behavioral disorders. Exceptional Children. Advance online publication.

Photo at top by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages. CC BY-NC 4.0