T-TESS Feedback Examples for All 16 Dimensions

A strong T-TESS feedback example names one dimension, describes what the teacher and students actually did, and gives one next step the teacher can try in the next lesson. The 38 examples below cover all four domains and all 16 dimensions of the current T-TESS rubric, with notes on where Planning and Professional Practices evidence comes from and how the examples carry over to T-TESS 2.

What makes a T-TESS feedback example useful?

Useful T-TESS feedback describes what happened in the room, names the dimension the evidence speaks to, and ends with a move the teacher can repeat or try. "Nice job checking for understanding" tells a teacher nothing. "You had every student hold up a whiteboard, saw that nine of them set up the ratio backward, and pulled those nine for a second model" tells them exactly what worked and why it counts as 2.5: Monitor and Adjust.

The dimension matters more than the domain. The T-TESS rubric has 16 dimensions across four domains, and a comment tagged only "Instruction" leaves the teacher guessing whether you meant communication, differentiation, or monitoring. A 2022 study of teacher perceptions found that teachers judged observation feedback useful when it was specific and clearly tied to their practice, and discounted it when the standards felt too broad.

The rubric itself tells you what to look for at the top. Every page of the official TEA T-TESS rubric runs an arrow from "Student-Centered Actions" under Distinguished to "Teacher-Centered Actions" under Improvement Needed. Three habits follow from that:

• Evidence before the label. Write what the teacher said and what students did, then name the dimension. A dimension number with no evidence behind it reads as an opinion.
• Student evidence, not just teacher moves. The higher performance levels describe what students do. Feedback that only describes the teacher misses half of what the rubric scores.
• One next step per strength. Pair the thing to repeat with one small move for the next lesson. Two or three dimensions per observation is plenty.

The examples below are written as the evidence half of a feedback note, with a next step where one is needed. They leave ratings out on purpose, because a rating should rest on evidence across the whole observation and the year, not one moment.

T-TESS Domain 1 examples: Planning

Domain 1 is scored from lesson plans, unit materials, and conversations as much as from the lesson itself. The rubric lists conferences and conversations with the teacher, classroom artifacts, and student growth processes among the possible sources of evidence, so several of these examples reference the pre-observation conference.

• 1.1: Standards and Alignment. Your objective named the TEKS student expectation, and the exit ticket asked students to do exactly what it described. Every activity in between led to that task.
• 1.1: Standards and Alignment. The lesson ended with the bell still ringing on the independent practice, so there was no closure. Next step: plan the last four minutes as a fixed closing routine and move practice earlier if it runs long.
• 1.2: Data and Assessment. In our pre-conference you showed me last week's unit check, sorted by the two error types students made most, and today's warm-up targeted both.
• 1.2: Data and Assessment. The plan includes one formal assessment at the end of the unit. Next step: add one quick check per lesson that tells you before Friday who needs a reteach.
• 1.3: Knowledge of Students. You named which students have IEP accommodations for extended time and which emergent bilingual students needed the sentence frames, and both supports were in place when the lesson started.
• 1.3: Knowledge of Students. Your word problems used the school's fall fundraiser and a local sports team, and two students who rarely volunteer asked questions about them.
• 1.4: Activities. The plan asked students to compare two solutions and decide which was more efficient, not just solve the problem. That built the higher-order thinking the dimension asks for into the task itself.
• 1.4: Activities. Every activity in the plan was whole group. Next step: build one choice point into tomorrow's practice, such as two problem sets at different entry points.

T-TESS Domain 2 examples: Instruction

Domain 2 is where most T-TESS observation feedback concentrates, because it describes what happens during the lesson. Each example pairs a teacher move with what students did in response.

• 2.1: Achieving Expectations. When a student said "I don't get it," you asked her what she had tried so far, pointed to step two, and walked away. She finished the problem on her own.
• 2.1: Achieving Expectations. You posted the success criteria and returned to them twice, and students used the same language when they explained their answers to partners.
• 2.1: Achieving Expectations. Students who made errors on the board problem were thanked and asked to explain their thinking, and the class found the mistake together. Nobody hid their work after that.
• 2.2: Content Knowledge and Expertise. You connected today's work on linear functions to the slope lesson from last week and to the science lab on speed, so students saw the same idea in three places.
• 2.2: Content Knowledge and Expertise. When a student asked why you flip the inequality sign, you explained it with a number line instead of restating the rule. Three students wrote the explanation in their notes.
• 2.2: Content Knowledge and Expertise. The definition of "theme" you gave matched "main idea," and two exit tickets repeated the confusion. Next step: model the difference with one short text before the next reading task.
• 2.3: Communication. Your directions for the lab were given once, posted on the board, and checked with "What do you do first?" Every group started within a minute.
• 2.3: Communication. You asked "Why do you think the author chose that word?" and waited about five seconds before calling on anyone. A student who had not spoken all period answered.
• 2.3: Communication. Eight of your 11 questions had one correct answer, and the same five students answered most of them. Next step: plan two open questions in advance and use a partner turn before taking answers.
• 2.4: Differentiation. You pulled four students to the back table for a second model while the rest worked independently, and all four completed the next problem correctly.
• 2.4: Differentiation. Students chose between two texts on the same topic at different reading levels, and the choices matched what their reading data suggested.
• 2.4: Differentiation. Six students finished the practice in 10 minutes and spent the rest of the block waiting. Next step: have an extension problem ready that goes deeper on the same skill rather than adding more of the same.
• 2.5: Monitor and Adjust. Every student held up a whiteboard, you saw that nine had set up the ratio backward, and you regrouped those nine on the spot.
• 2.5: Monitor and Adjust. When the discussion stalled, you dropped the planned question and asked students to rank the three causes instead. Talk picked up immediately.
• 2.5: Monitor and Adjust. You checked understanding by asking "Does everyone get it?" and moved on when the room nodded. Next step: replace the yes or no check with one problem every student answers on paper.

T-TESS Domain 3 examples: Learning Environment

Domain 3 is the most visible domain in a short walkthrough. Environment feedback is the easiest to write vaguely, so student evidence carries more weight here than anywhere else.

• 3.1: Classroom Environment, Routines and Procedures. The transition from whole group to stations took under a minute and no directions were repeated. Students clearly owned the routine.
• 3.1: Classroom Environment, Routines and Procedures. Materials managers at each table handed out supplies while the rest of the class started the warm-up, so no instructional time went to distribution.
• 3.1: Classroom Environment, Routines and Procedures. Students waited about three minutes at the start of class while you took attendance. Next step: post a warm-up students start on entry so attendance runs while they work.
• 3.2: Managing Student Behavior. You redirected two off-task students with proximity and a quiet word, without stopping instruction or naming them in front of the class.
• 3.2: Managing Student Behavior. When the noise rose during partner work, a student used the class signal before you did and the room reset. That is the kind of student-led behavior the top of the rubric describes.
• 3.3: Classroom Culture. When one partner finished early, she asked her partner to explain his answer instead of giving hers, and he caught his own mistake.
• 3.3: Classroom Culture. Two students laughed at a wrong answer. You stopped, named the norm, and returned to the student who answered. The next wrong answer that period got no laughter.

T-TESS Domain 4 examples: Professional Practices and Responsibilities

Domain 4 is the hardest domain to observe, because most of it happens outside the classroom. The T-TESS rubric lists the Goal-Setting and Professional Development Plan (GSPD), conferences and conversations including the end-of-year conference, student data, and daily interaction with others as possible sources of evidence for this domain. The examples below are written from those sources.

• 4.1: Professional Demeanor and Ethics. You submitted every progress report and accommodation log on time this semester, and the 504 coordinator mentioned that your documentation was complete without follow-up.
• 4.1: Professional Demeanor and Ethics. When a parent disputed a grade, you documented the conversation, followed the district's grade review procedure, and copied the assistant principal the same day.
• 4.2: Goal Setting. In our post-conference you named the moment the discussion stalled before I raised it and connected it to your GSPD goal on student discourse. That kind of accurate self-assessment is what a good post-observation conversation is built on.
• 4.2: Goal Setting. Your GSPD goal says "improve questioning" with no measure attached. Next step: rewrite it so you and I would both know in May whether you met it.
• 4.3: Professional Development. The discussion protocol you brought back from the summer literacy training showed up in three of my four walkthroughs since. Next step: lead a 15-minute demonstration at the next staff meeting.
• 4.3: Professional Development. You brought your exit ticket data to the grade-level PLC and proposed the shared reteach plan the team adopted.
• 4.4: School Community Involvement. You noticed a student's grades dropping in three classes, contacted his other teachers, and brought the pattern to the counselor before progress reports went out.
• 4.4: School Community Involvement. Your family communication log shows a positive call home for every student before the first progress report, and two of those families attended conferences for the first time.

What is an example of a T-TESS goal?

A good T-TESS goal names one practice, connects it to student learning, and includes a measure you can check at the end-of-year conference. The 4.2 Goal Setting dimension describes Proficient practice as setting "short- and long-term professional goals based on self-assessment, reflection and supervisor feedback" and meeting them in a way that results in "improvement in practice and student performance." Here are three goals written that way:

1. Questioning (2.3). By the end of the spring semester, at least half of my questions in each observed lesson will be open-ended, and at least 75% of students will respond verbally or in writing to one of them, measured by my own audio recordings and walkthrough notes.
2. Monitoring (2.5). Starting in January, every lesson will include one mid-lesson check that every student answers, and I will regroup or reteach based on it at least twice a week, documented in my planning notes.
3. Differentiation (2.4). By the end of the third grading period, my students receiving reading intervention will show growth on the district's reading benchmark equal to or greater than the class average.

Each goal can be checked against evidence rather than impressions, which is what makes the end-of-year conference a conversation about data. Our end-of-year evaluation guide covers how to run that conference.

What separates Accomplished from Distinguished in T-TESS?

The difference between the top two levels is usually who is running the practice. Take 2.5: Monitor and Adjust. At Proficient, the rubric says the teacher "consistently invites input from students in order to monitor and adjust instruction and activities." At Distinguished, the teacher "systematically gathers input from students" and adjusts "instruction, activities or pacing to respond to differences in student needs."

Classroom Culture follows the same pattern. At Proficient, "students work respectfully individually and in groups." At Distinguished, "students collaborate positively and encourage each other's efforts and achievements." The evidence moves from what students are allowed to do to what they do for each other.

That distinction shows up directly in feedback. "You checked for understanding throughout the lesson" is Proficient-level evidence. "You used whiteboard responses from every student to regroup nine of them in the moment" is the kind of systematic, student-responsive evidence the higher levels require. If you want to support a Distinguished rating, look for what students did without you, not just what you did well.

Ratings also drift when appraisers read the same evidence differently. Our guide to calibrating observation ratings covers a norming protocol for appraisal teams.

Do these T-TESS examples work under T-TESS 2?

Mostly yes. The Texas Education Agency's T-TESS refresh keeps four domains and the five-level scale, renames Planning to Instructional Preparation and Instruction to Instructional Delivery, and consolidates the 16 dimensions into fewer. Learning Environment and Professional Practices and Responsibilities keep their names. The evidence in each example above still applies; the dimension number it gets tagged with will change.

Two things change how you write the feedback. T-TESS 2 adds target indicators that require evidence of student learning at the higher levels, and TEA's guidance says a practice must generally be demonstrated at least 80% of the time to meet a performance level. Feedback that counts how often a practice appeared, not just that it appeared once, will transfer cleanly. Our T-TESS 1 vs T-TESS 2 comparison covers the changes in detail, and the T-TESS 2 timeline explains which districts move when. Most Texas campuses are still appraising on the current 16-dimension rubric in 2026-27.

How long does it take to write T-TESS feedback?

Scripting the lesson is fast. The slow part is sorting the notes into 16 dimensions, deciding which two or three matter most, and writing the language in the rubric's own terms. That analysis is where feedback falls behind.

In the past, it's taken me up to two weeks to get the final report written, identify areas of strength and weakness, and then finally sit down and be able to have the meeting with the teacher to go over it.

Observation Copilot handles that sorting step. You paste your scripting, choose T-TESS, and it maps the evidence to the right domains and dimensions and drafts strengths, growth areas, and next steps for you to edit. It is free for individual principals.

The actual process with Observation Copilot has alleviated that time that it takes for me to go back and look at which domain it's aligned to and making sure that I'm using the correct verbiage in our rubric.

For Texas-specific observation requirements, see our Texas guide. For the same format applied to other rubrics, see our Danielson Framework feedback examples and 50 teacher observation feedback examples.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you provide some examples of T-TESS observation evidence?

T-TESS observation evidence is a low-inference record of what the teacher and students did. Examples include "Students transitioned to stations in under a minute with no repeated directions" for 3.1, "Nine of 26 whiteboards showed the ratio set up backward, and the teacher regrouped those nine" for 2.5, and a GSPD goal with a measure for 4.2.

Can you provide an example of a T-TESS goal?

A strong T-TESS goal names one practice, ties it to student learning, and includes a measure. For example: "Starting in January, every lesson will include one mid-lesson check every student answers, and I will regroup or reteach based on it at least twice a week." That goal connects to dimension 2.5: Monitor and Adjust.

What are three examples of effective feedback statements?

"Your wait time of about five seconds brought in a student who had not spoken all period." "The transition to stations took under a minute and no directions were repeated." "Six students finished early and waited, so plan an extension problem on the same skill." Each names evidence, and the last adds a next step.

What are the four domains of T-TESS?

The current T-TESS rubric has four domains: Planning, Instruction, Learning Environment, and Professional Practices and Responsibilities. Together they contain 16 dimensions rated on a five-level scale from Improvement Needed to Distinguished. T-TESS 2 renames the first two domains Instructional Preparation and Instructional Delivery.

Where does T-TESS Domain 4 evidence come from?

Most Domain 4 evidence comes from outside the observed lesson. The T-TESS rubric lists the Goal-Setting and Professional Development Plan (GSPD), conferences and conversations with the teacher including the end-of-year conference, student data, and daily interaction with others as possible sources of evidence.