Characteristics of Effective Teaching at OES

The Characteristics of an Effective Teacher (CET) is the instrument through which teachers set goals, reflect on their practice, receive feedback, and continually improve towards fulfilling our mission for those to whom it matters most: our students. By providing sustainable professional development, OES centers on each individual teacher’s practice and growth to support student learning.

In This Section

Cultivate Student Agency

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Scaffold learning with a goal of independence

How do students in my classroom engage in questioning, exploration, and reflection to deepen their understanding?
In what ways do I create opportunities for students to make meaningful choices in their learning?
Where and how do I observe students actively exploring ideas, materials, or processes with curiosity and purpose?
How do my classroom routines and structures promote independence, ownership, and shared responsibility for learning?

Assess in service of ongoing learning

In what ways do I assess to determine what each student needs and therefore adjust my instructional strategies?
How do students in my class use reflection and assessments to set goals and increase their ownership over learning?
How do students receive peer and teacher feedback? What opportunities do they have to apply this feedback?
How do assessments offer students the opportunity to demonstrate proficiency and identify next steps?

Equip students with strategies that allow them to overcome challenges independently

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Be a Warm Demander

Communicate and maintain clear and consistent expectations for all members of the classroom community

Maintain high expectations for every student, and recognize and build upon their potential

Build a high trust classroom

How do I show students I care about them beyond academics, and demonstrate that I trust and believe in their potential?
How do I normalize mistakes as a part of learning and create a community where students feel safe and supported in making them?
How do I nurture a community in which students hold themselves and their peers accountable?
How do I create a classroom culture where students actively seek out and apply constructive feedback from me and their peers?

Give frequent, constructive, and timely feedback

Provide multiple opportunities and structures for every student to participate

How do I structure groups to ensure all students are actively contributing, as well as learning with and from one another?
What routines and practices give the students low-stakes chances to practice risk-taking?
How do I teach collaboration skills to ensure that all students’ voices are heard?
How do I balance student and teacher voice in the classroom, and what informs my decisions about when to step in or step back?
In what ways are students both invited and expected to verbally contribute? What do I do when they don’t accept that invitation?

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Make Learning Visible

Identify and intentionally work towards, and assess for growth congruent with productive Learning Outcomes (LOs)

Do the Learning Outcomes foster productive struggle?
How do students receive and interact with identified Learning Outcomes?
In what ways do learning activities support student progress towards identified Learning Outcomes?
Do students understand the purpose of learning activities in relation to the Learning Outcomes?
How do students receive feedback, know where they are in their progress towards LOs, and what they can do to move forward?

Promote productive struggle

How am I requiring students to apply knowledge and skills to new challenges?
How are problem solving and perseverance in the process valued relative to the end product?
How are students supported during the work process, including when they get stuck?
How are mistakes and challenges discussed and celebrated?
How do I document the learning process so students can recursively reflect on their growth?

Identify Learning Indicators (discrete success criteria) so students know what they are working towards and why.

Do the Indicators foster productive struggle?
How do the Learning Indicators inform my planning in a given lesson? In a given unit? In the arc of the whole course?
How do students receive and interact with identified Indicators?
Do students understand how the Indicators lead to the Learning Outcomes so that they can monitor their own progress?
How do students know what success vis-à-vis the Indicators looks like?

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Differentiate Instruction

Make instructional adjustments to meet students’ learning and social emotional needs

Ensure that all students actively and meaningfully engage in learning

Develop and use culturally responsive practices to respond to the needs of each student

Which students do I struggle to reach? Why might that be?
What unspoken cultural norms shape expectations and performance in my classroom?
Do all students in my class have windows, mirrors, and doors through which they can authentically see others and themselves?
How do I plan curriculum and instruction that honors students' backgrounds and prior knowledge?
How do I continue to deepen my understanding of my own culture and that of my students?

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Model Lifelong Learning

Solicit and constructively use professional feedback

Stay up to date with educational research and content knowledge to effectively center current students

Continually evaluate one’s impact on student learning

How do I evaluate multiple data points and examine trends of student learning (assessments, behavior, collaboration, social interactions) to inform the decisions I make in the classroom?
What adjustments do I make to my core instruction to meet the needs of my students?
When I notice a trend in my students' behavior or learning, how do I explore its root cause?
How am I seeing what students are doing with a goal of making adjustments to my practice?

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Cultivate Belonging

Nurture relationships that promote learning with and between students

Seek to know, understand, value, and respond to each student and help students do so for each other

Do students in my class see each other as whole people, capable of both learning from and advocating for one another?
Whose stories, identities, or strengths do I know deeply—and whose might be invisible in my classroom?
How do I create space for students to share who they are, and how do I respond when they do?
How do I recognize and interrupt bias when it impacts how I or students treat someone in the class?

Build a classroom environment in which students take risks, collaborate, and disagree, and recognize perspectives beyond their own

Do students feel emotionally and intellectually safe enough to say, “I don’t know,” or to challenge a peer—or me?
How do I facilitate disagreement in a way that strengthens relationships and deepens thinking?
Are students in my class expanding their empathy and perspective-taking over time? How do I know?
What norms, tools, or models have I given students to respectfully engage across difference —even when it's uncomfortable?
How do I ensure that students recognize and are equipped to question unequal power dynamics in texts, discussions, and systems?

Recognize and remove barriers to student learning

In what ways do I consider how aspects of a student’s identity (gender, culture, learning profile, etc.) might impact their learning?
Whose needs are not met in my classroom, and what systemic or instructional barriers might be at play?
How do I adapt my materials, assessments, or strategies to meet diverse needs?
How do I check whether my expectations and supports are equitable?
What unintentional barriers (academic language, norms) might exclude some students from full engagement in my class?
How do I involve students in identifying inequities in the classroom or school—and encourage them to take informed action?