Framework for Teaching

The framework for teaching (FFT) is a classroom observation instrument used widely in teacher mentoring and professional development and, increasingly, in the evaluation of teachers (over 20 states along with hundreds of school districts either mandate or approve its use). The FFT generally receives broad support from educators because it is meant to reflect the complex professional responsibilities of classroom teaching. Rather than rely on checklists with those behaviors that are easy to measure, the FFT instead asks well-trained raters to make high-inference ratings of teachers’ classroom instruction using detailed rubrics. This entry reviews the history and theoretical foundation of the FFT, the evolution of the instrument, research supporting its effectiveness, and how it is used in teacher evaluations.