Richard+Elmore+Article

Elmore, from Harvard Graduate School of Education states that "You don't change performance without changing the instructional core. The relationship of the teacher and the student in the presence of content must be at the center of efforts to improve performance."

Elmore cautions.... "If you don't have a way of connecting instruction to management, organiztion, and acountability, you're behaving irresponsibly." He advises focusing on those things that make the instructional core work.

What this means, says Elmore, is there are basically only three ways you can increase learning and performance: 1. Increase the knowledge and skills of teachers. 2. Change the content 3. Alter the relationship of the student to the teacher and the content.

Given the serious consequences of the current accountability context, Elmore advocates focusing on the instructional core in schools - the teacher and the student in the presence of the content.

iObservation will focus on the instructional core and support the work of teachers to improve their practice.