Tennessee Department of Education trainer reviews Instructional Practice Guides, urges formative use and norming

Bruce Billings, East Region ELA consultant for the Tennessee Department of Education, led an East Tennessee virtual training on instructional practice guides that the department uses to define classroom expectations and to norm instructional quality across schools.

Billings said instructional practice guides "define the vision for strong instruction," and described two ELA-specific guides: a foundational-skills IPG for pre-K–2 and a knowledge-building IPG for pre-K–12. He said the guides are being scaled beyond ELA "into math, science, and beyond." The session focused on the knowledge-building guide's structure—culture of learning, core action 1 (high-quality text), core action 2 (teacher question and task design), and core action 3 (student engagement)—and on practical application for leaders doing learning walks.

Why it matters: Billings presented the IPG as a common language and monitoring tool to support continuous…