Case Study #1.

Teacher Effectiveness in Arts Classrooms

Documenting best practices for effective student-centered teaching among arts educators as a book and blog series

In the spring of 2019, I had the privilege of taking a sabbatical from teaching full-time in the New York City public schools to explore a special research project that would further my practice as a theatre teacher. After over a decade as an educator with the New York City Department of Education, I was interested in finding a way to make the explicit connection between the two hats that I wore: that of classroom teacher and that of a city­-wide professional development facilitator. While one naturally informed the other, my sabbatical was designed to offer a structured opportunity to reflect on how these two experiences afforded me the unique perspective of aligning a rigorous approach to arts education with the state mandated use of the Danielson Framework for Teaching and Learning. 

My research explored the points of intersection between teaching students and teaching teachers. With the introduction of the Danielson Framework for Teaching as a Measure of Teacher Practice in New York State, educators had a consistent vocabulary with which to align their practice. After seeing my own pedagogy evolve as I adapted my teaching to the framework by giving more ownership to students, I knew that creating a resource for other arts teachers would help operationalize the framework for real life, and, ultimately, improve the classroom experience for students of all ages and levels.

Danielson in the Theatre Classroom: Tools for Designing and Articulating a Rigorous Theatre Curriculum. The culmination of my sabbatical project was a 68 page text that reviewed the Danielson Framework for Teaching and Learning; shared best practices observed in theatre classrooms across New York City; explored connections between teacher effectiveness and standards-based teaching and teacher training protocols; and offered support for educators through interviews with practitioners, resources, and acknowledging ongoing questions. Click here to review the manuscript.

Teacher Effectiveness Blog. Upon the completion of my sabbatical research project, I began the process of disseminating my discoveries with my network of arts educators. A big takeaway from my observations is that best practices in a theatre classroom are actually best practices in any classroom, so I expanded the reach and updated the content from my research. The Teacher Effectiveness Blog has been adapted to speak to arts educators across all areas by providing personal anecdotes, observations from their peers, and honest assessment of challenges arts teachers face when it comes to teacher evaluation.