What is IPI?

Instructional Practices Inventory

Keystone AEA
January 28, 2009
Students would be better served
if educators embraced learning
rather than teaching as the
mission of their school,
if
they worked collaboratively to
help all students learn,
 and if they used formative
assessments and a focus on results to
guide their practice and foster
continuous improvement.

On Common Ground: The Power of Professional Learning

Communities,
Rick and Rebecca DuFour and their co-editor Robert Eaker
(2005)
Who developed IPI?
JerryValentine
University of Missouri
Middle Level Leadership Center.
The IPI is a very practical system
for understanding learning across
an entire school.
Itprovides one form of data that is
valuable when a school faculty
begins the critical conversations.
The focus is on student learning
rather than teaching--the IPI
process collects data about
student engagement.
Teachers must study and think
together collaboratively--the IPI
profiles are created to be the basis
for collaborative faculty study and
reflection.
Formative data are essential to
monitor and adjust practices--the
IPI profiles provide formative data
about student engaged learning.
IPI data can help maintain faculty
focus on continuous change in
school-wide learning and related
instruction.
What is the IPI process?
Observe a typical school day: no
unusual circumstances occurring
on that day that would disrupt
normalcy of the day.
Fridays are avoided when
possible
Observers use a map to
systematically move throughout
the school and observe every
class.
Each classroom is observed for a
short period of time, typically one
to three minutes.
Observers focus on the students
learning experiences during the
first few moments of the
observation. Transitions may
occur while the observer is in the
classroom, but the first learning
experience observed is coded.
Each observation is coded
anonymously; IPI observations
should never be used for
purposes of teacher evaluation.
When a learning experience is
borderline between two
categories, the observer records
the category that represents the
most favorable learning
experiencethe profile being
created is an optimum profile of
student engagement.
Classes are not observed (coded)
during the first five minutes or the
last five minutes of a class at the
middle or secondary level or
during content transitions at the
elementary level.
One hundred observations per
day should be considered a
minimum (125-150 is preferred
and more typical).
Special education classes are
coded as core or non-core based
on the content that is occurring at
the time of the observation.
Classes of substitute teachers
are not coded into the profile
unless higher-order thinking is
evident.
Classes of student teachers are
coded like a regular teacher.
 Review
the rubric for coding
engagement
Is a #5 or #6 important?
Students in highly successful
schools are significantly more
likely to be engaged in higher
order thinking with teachers who
are actively teaching the
students.
Students in less successful
schools are more likely to be
doing seatwork with or without
teachers support or disengaged
from learning.
% of an Elem. day spent
#6 15-25%
#5 3-5%
#4 35-40%
#3 20-30%
#2 5-10%
#1 3-8%
% of Middle School spent
#6 15-20%
#5 3-5%
#4 35-45%
#3 20-30%
#2 10-20%
#1 5-10%
% of High School spent
#6 15-20
#5 3-5%
#4 30-40%
#3 15-20%
#2 15-20%
#1 5-15%
Questions about IPI?