In the early 2010s, Bayless School District in St. Louis, Missouri, was experiencing big challenges. Student achievement had dipped alarmingly low, and teacher morale was rapidly dwindling. School leaders knew they needed to make changes. 

Bayless’ turnaround efforts honed in on one of the most powerful drivers of student achievement: an effective teacher in every classroom. District data signaled teachers believed they had a capacity to lead but were not given enough opportunities. So, in 2017, Bayless embarked on a path toward developing teacher leaders, an initiative meant to unlock the powers of great teachers to grow and cultivate their peers.

The 22 Bayless teacher leaders are much more than department chairs. They are engaged in deliberate and intentional teacher-leadership development that includes a deep understanding of the Teacher Leader Model Standards and The Art of Coaching. 

An important component of the program is peer observation, which allows teacher leaders to provide coaching support to their peers and begin to understand their impact on other teachers. 

However, Bayless faced practical challenges with implementing peer observation:

  • Time: It could be difficult to find time for teachers to get into their peers’ classrooms.
  • Structure: The structure of the peer observation protocol did not support the level of focus or intentionality required to develop an effective action plan or generate meaningful reflection from peer observation. 
  • Organization: Hosting peer observation templates in Google Drive became a huge logistical challenge and could not guarantee confidentiality.

As Bayless’ teacher-leadership program evolved, so did the need for an effective peer observation tool to schedule, document, and track observations while protecting confidentiality. Bayless began working with the Network for Educator Effectiveness to develop a peer observation platform, which became known as the NEE POWERHub, an instrument to enhance Peer Observation With Empowered Reflection.

POWERHub provides a simplified way for teachers to collaborate with their peers, allowing them to go back and forth throughout the peer observation cycle to document their pre-observation discussion, data collection, reflection, and action planning. Using the NEE POWERHub, Bayless’ peer observation process has become even more impactful. The tool provides:

  • Focus. Teachers are prompted to identify one indicator of effective teaching to focus on during the observation. This level of focus simplifies the process and has provided teachers with richer opportunities for learning.
  • Confidentiality. With POWERHub, the teacher controls who sees peer observation feedback. In Bayless, peer observations are strictly peer-to-peer, allowing teachers to develop trusting coaching relationships.
  • Scheduling. POWERHub allows teachers to request to observe a peer or invite a peer into their classroom. Every observation can be scheduled, confirmed, and archived without the involvement of an administrator or instructional coach.
  • Research-backed protocol. The tool guides teachers through a peer observation process that is grounded in research-backed best practices.
  • Reporting. Although administrators do not see peer observation feedback unless it is shared with them by the teacher, they can see that peer observations are taking place and how they are being used. 

“Having a tool to streamline peer observation – to really help us focus and document all of our efforts around peer observation – was really pivotal for us,” said Bayless Superintendent Amelia Ruzicka. “We are now better equipped to embed peer observations into our mentoring program and our teachers’ professional development plans, making sure learning is embedded in the work we do every day. Some of the best professional development is the teacher right down the hall.”

Hear Bayless educators talk about their experience using the NEE POWERHub to empower their professional learning.

Bayless’ peer observation process, facilitated by the NEE POWERHub, has been maximized within the context of a robust teacher leadership program. The district’s culture and climate data reflects the strong, positive impacts. Recent data shows more than 75 percent of teachers say they are given opportunities to lead their professional learning – closing the previous gap that indicated otherwise. District-wide, 94 percent of staff members feel well-supported by their colleagues.

Student achievement data also shows strong gains. In 2023, Bayless was the only St. Louis-area school district where English language arts proficiency among Black students (45.5%) was higher than the state average for all students (43.5%).1 Bayless scored higher in 2022 than any other school district in the St. Louis region on student growth in English and math.2 Additionally, Bayless is one of only two districts in St. Louis County that has increased enrollment by more than 1 percent since the pandemic.3

To learn more about the NEE POWERHub, visit the POWERHub webpage or contact NEE at nee@missouri.edu or 844-793-4357.

  1. “New reading campaigns aim to boost literacy across St. Louis,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 25, 2024. 
  2. “New rating system shows decline for Missouri schools as open enrollment gains support,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 8, 2023.
  3. “Public school enrollment stabilizes in St. Louis after pandemic losses,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 29, 2023.

The Network for Educator Effectiveness (NEE) is a simple yet powerful comprehensive system for educator evaluation that helps educators grow, students learn, and schools improve. Developed by preK-12 practitioners and experts at the University of Missouri, NEE brings together classroom observation, student feedback, teacher curriculum planning, and professional development as measures of effectiveness in a secure online portal designed to promote educator growth and development.