A cornerstone of my prior team’s training program is Summer Institute. During Institute, our newest teachers are taught to become exceptional classroom leaders while teaching summer school. Given the magnitude of this program, most of the staff responsible for leading this experience are part-time workers. Though we hire exceptional talent, making decisions quickly in this fast-paced environment without the context that full-time employees have is a continual challenge on the ground. 

Based on past performance reviews and interviews with prior leaders, I identified key areas of decision making that presented the most challenge for our summer staff. Using organizational leadership principles, I got specific about the skills and knowledge required to make decisions well in our context. Finally, through interviews for these summer roles, I was able to understand candidate past success and areas for growth in making decisions and demonstrating judgement in prior roles.

Using all of the data available, I developed a two-page guide that highlighted Teach For America’s approach to making decisions and demonstrating judgement, best practices in all situations, a grid that helps contextualize how to escalate situations, and exceptions to “normal” decision making. Team members then received training on the approach for the summer and practice with scenarios and role plays to prepare for common scenarios. As a result, we saw significantly higher results on performance reviews for the “making decisions and demonstrating judgement” leadership competency and fewer concerns from teachers about the quality and speed of our decisions compared to prior years.