Leading Instructional Rounds in Education: A Facilitator's Guide

Instructional rounds is a powerful form of professional learning aimed at helping schools and systems develop the capacity to educate all children to high levels. In this practical book, Thomas Fowler-Finn, an experienced consultant who has worked closely with the Harvard team that pioneered instructional rounds, discusses how facilitators can skillfully guide a network of educators through the rounds process.

He shows how to scaffold participant learning, model effective teaching practices, and gradually transfer agency to the network. Leading Instructional Rounds is an invaluable resource for advancing the work of all facilitators, whether novice or experienced.

Thomas Fowler-Finn, founder of Instructional Rounds Plus, works as a consultant nationally and internationally to improve leadership practices in education through instructional rounds. He has dedicated his professional life as a teacher, principal, and superintendent to the belief that all students deserve better. In this pursuit, he has turned around urban and suburban school districts, receiving multiple honors and awards.

During his tenure as superintendent of the Cambridge Public Schools, the district was honored as one of the most improved school systems in the state by the Educational Quality and Accountability agency of the governor’s office. As superintendent of the 32,000-student Fort Wayne urban school district, Tom was honored by Governor Frank O’Bannon with the highest citizen leadership honor awarded by the state of Indiana. Other distinctions include twice being honored by the Massachusetts State Department of Education for exceptional leadership and vision, selection as a model of school corporation success by the International Centre for Leadership in Education and by the National School Board Association, and identification by the Wallace Foundation as being among the top school superintendents in the nation.

Additional open-source resources for facilitators are available at www.instructionalrounds.com or by contacting the author at tfowlerfin@gmail.com.