✏️ When Systems Encourage Over-Teaching: How School Leaders Can Empower (Not Pressure) Teachers

In my last blog post, I talked about a common trap in many math classrooms: teachers doing all the work while students check out. I called it the silent thief of student learning—because when students don’t get to wrestle with mathematical ideas for themselves, they miss the very thing they need to grow: the opportunity to think, reason, and make sense of math.

But here’s the thing: this isn’t just a classroom problem. It’s a systems problem.

When we zoom out, we can see how school leaders—whether they realize it or not—often create the very conditions that make over-teaching the norm. If we want students to do more of the thinking, we have to start by looking at the role leaders play in shaping what teaching looks like and what teaching feels like for both educators and students.

💥 The Pressure Is Real

Let’s be honest: the pressure to raise test scores is intense. Leaders are accountable for school-wide performance, and that pressure gets passed down to teachers—especially in schools serving marginalized students. Add in pacing guides, scripted curriculum, walkthrough checklists, and evaluation rubrics, and it’s no wonder so many teachers feel like they don’t have the space to slow down and let students do the heavy lifting.

Under pressure, teachers often default to control. And that control looks like:

• Over-explaining

• Rushing through problems

• Avoiding open-ended questions

• Calling on only the “fast” or “right” students

  
  

All of this comes from a place of urgency, but it leads to a classroom where the teacher is the hardest-working person in the room—and the students are passive observers. That might “cover” content, but it doesn’t create learning.

🔗 ICUCARE® Insight: This pressure-filled environment makes it incredibly difficult for teachers to Release Control or Expect More. And when we lower the cognitive demand for students we perceive as “behind,” we actually widen the gap.

🧠 The Messages Leadership Sends (Even When We Don’t Mean To)

I’ve worked with enough teachers and leaders to know that no one is trying to discourage student agency. But the subtle, systemic messages we send speak volumes:

• “Make sure your lesson is tight.”

• “The principal is coming—make sure they see high engagement.”

• “You’re behind in the pacing guide.”

• “Data meetings are tomorrow—be ready to explain your scores.”

All of these messages shift the focus away from student thinking and toward teacher performance. And when that happens, teachers teach for compliance. They stop taking instructional risks. They play it safe. They do all the work.

💡 What Empowering Leadership Looks Like

If we want to break the cycle of over-teaching, leaders have to lead differently. That means creating conditions where teachers feel safe, supported, and trusted to prioritize student thinking—even if that means letting go of control and slowing down the pace.

Here’s how school leaders can support that shift:

1. Focus Observations on Student Thinking

Instead of asking, “Did the teacher explain it clearly?” try asking:

• “Who’s doing most of the talking and reasoning?”

• “What opportunities are students given to make sense of the math?”

• “How are mistakes being handled—as problems to fix or opportunities to learn?”

• How are students engaged in the Standards for Mathematical Practice?

When you center students in your observations, teachers will start to center students in their instruction.

2. Normalize Productive Struggle

Let teachers know: struggle is not failure—it’s learning. You don’t need to see flawless lessons to know learning is happening. In fact, if everything looks too smooth, you might want to ask: are students being challenged enough?

Support teachers in designing lessons where students do the grappling before being rescued.

3. Encourage Instructional Risk-Taking

Make professional learning a place for experimentation—not perfection. Celebrate moments when teachers try something new, even if it didn’t go exactly as planned.

Build a culture where teachers know it’s okay to say:

• “I tried something different today.”

• “My students struggled with this—but I saw real thinking happening.”

• “I don’t have all the answers, but I’m learning with my students.”

That’s what growth looks like.

4. Use Data for Insight, Not Pressure

When data becomes a weapon, teachers retreat to safe practices. But when data is used as a flashlight—not a hammer—it can actually lead to innovation.

Ask:

• “What trends are we noticing in how students are thinking?”

• “Which students are getting access to deep learning opportunities?”

• “How can we shift instruction to support reasoning—not just right answers?”

🔗 ICUCARE® Insight: This is about Understanding Your Students Well—and creating a culture where every student is positioned as a capable math thinker.

🧭 Leading Through ICUCARE

Let’s bring it back to the framework. The ICUCARE Equity Framework gives us a way forward:

• ✅ Include Others as Experts: Elevate teacher voices in decision-making. Trust their professional judgment.

• ✅ Release Control (yes, even at the leadership level): Empower teachers to shift ownership to students.

• ✅ Expect More: Don’t just expect teachers to “cover the standards”—expect them to create space for deep, student-driven learning.

• ✅ Be Critically Conscious: Recognize how structural pressures disproportionately impact teachers of marginalized learners, and work to counteract those effects.

🗣 Final Thoughts: Create the Conditions

If we want math classrooms where students do the deep thinking, the struggle, and the discovery—leaders must do the deep work of creating the conditions for that to happen.

That means pushing back on systems that prioritize speed over sensemaking. It means rethinking what we praise and what we measure. And most importantly, it means trusting that our students—and our teachers—are capable of so much more when we give them the time, the space, and the support to thrive.

Let’s build school cultures where everyone is allowed to think.