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Looking at Learning was first developed at Richard Green Central Park School in Minneapolis. Jan Parrish, the school's principal proposed having their improvement plan include teachers becoming more interactive in their delivery. No measurement tool was found to measure levels of student interaction, so a new measurement tool was designed. During this time, both John Froelich and Allison Zmuda were consultants working at the school, and they pooled their expertise to develop this new tool based on the principles of “Understanding by Design.” Looking at Learning is a unique and innovative measurement tool that captures the actual priorities playing out in the classroom and focuses on the cognitive purpose of the instruction.
John Froelich is an educator based in Minnesota. As a teacher he taught all levels from kindergarten through college and is a past president of the Minnesota Music Educators Association. From 1998 through 2002 he worked as an educational specialist at the Minnesota State Department of Education supporting school improvement in all curricular areas. During this time he developed expertise interpreting and displaying school and testing data. He now continues to work with schools developing and implementing improvement plans in grades K-12 and has expertise in both literacy and math improvement. He is the author and programmer of “Looking at Learning,” a classroom observation tool designed to quantify classroom activities from the student’s point of view. Dr. Froelich continues to work with schools and districts as they develop and implement improvement plans in all curricular areas. In addition to his education efforts, he can be heard as a professional trombonist in the Minneapolis area.
Allison Zmuda works with the Association for the Supervision and Curriculum Development as a Faculty member in the Understanding by Design cadre, with Education Connection in Litchfield, Connecticut as a staff consultant, and independently through her own consulting firm The Competent Classroom, LLC. She has presented at workshops and conferences across the United States as well as in Canada, Japan, and Russia.