How Can Principals Save Time on Teacher Evaluations?

The Time Problem Every Principal Faces

Ask any principal what keeps them from being in classrooms more, and the answer is almost always the same: time. It’s not the walkthrough itself that takes long—most classroom visits last 10 to 20 minutes. The bottleneck is everything that comes after.

After a visit, principals typically need to review their notes, organize observations by framework domain, draft clear and professional language, frame feedback constructively, and get the write-up to the teacher before the visit feels stale. For a single observation, this process can take 30 to 45 minutes. Multiply that across 30, 40, or 50 teachers—each needing multiple observations per year—and the administrative burden becomes staggering.

• Hours spent on write-ups. A principal with 40 teachers doing just two formal observations each is looking at 40–60 hours of writing per cycle. That’s a full work week consumed by documentation alone.
• Delayed feedback. When write-ups take days or weeks to complete, the feedback loses its impact. Teachers can’t connect the suggestions to the lesson that was observed, and the coaching moment is lost.
• Rushed evaluations. Under time pressure, feedback gets shorter, more generic, and less useful. Principals end up copying and pasting language or writing the same surface-level comments across multiple teachers.
• Fewer classroom visits overall. When every visit creates a 45-minute administrative task, leaders visit fewer classrooms. The very thing that research says matters most—frequent, targeted feedback—gets crowded out.

How Trellis Solves the Time Problem

Trellis was built by a former school administrator who experienced this exact tension firsthand. The platform addresses each stage of the observation workflow where time gets lost:

• Capture evidence in the moment. During a walkthrough, leaders use Trellis on their phone or tablet to jot quick notes, record short voice memos, or tap observation tags. There’s no need for polished language at this stage—shorthand, abbreviations, and bullet points all work. The goal is to capture what’s happening authentically without disrupting the classroom.
• AI refines and organizes notes. After the visit, Trellis’s AI takes the raw input and transforms it into clear, professional prose. It identifies which instructional framework domains the evidence maps to, suggests strengths-first framing, and drafts specific next steps. The leader reviews and edits before anything is finalized.
• Generate and share feedback reports. With a few clicks, Trellis produces a complete feedback document ready to share with the teacher. Reports include evidence, framework alignment, strengths, and growth areas—all written in the leader’s voice and tone.

The entire process—from leaving the classroom to having a shareable feedback report—typically takes under 10 minutes.

The Impact: By the Numbers

Schools using Trellis are seeing measurable improvements in both efficiency and feedback quality:

• 500+ admin hours saved per site annually. By reducing the time from observation to feedback from 30–45 minutes to under 10 minutes, schools reclaim hundreds of hours each year. That time goes back to what matters most—being present in classrooms and having coaching conversations.
• 5x more observations completed. When the administrative burden drops, leaders visit classrooms more often. Schools using Trellis report completing five times more walkthroughs and informal observations compared to their previous workflow.
• Same-day feedback delivery. Instead of feedback arriving days or weeks after a visit, teachers receive their reports while the lesson is still fresh. This dramatically increases the likelihood that feedback translates into changed practice.

How Faster Feedback Improves Teacher Satisfaction

Speed alone isn’t the goal—better feedback culture is. When principals deliver timely, specific, and strengths-based feedback consistently, teachers notice. Schools using Trellis have found that 95% of teachers report feeling more supported after receiving feedback through the platform.

This matters because teacher retention and morale are directly tied to how supported educators feel by their leadership. When observations shift from compliance-driven checklists to genuine coaching conversations, the entire culture around professional growth changes.

• Feedback feels personal, not generic. Because Trellis maintains a longitudinal profile for each teacher, feedback references prior observations, growth goals, and specific classroom evidence. Teachers can see that their leader actually noticed what happened in the room.
• Strengths are named first. Trellis surfaces what’s working before suggesting next steps. This positive-first approach builds trust and makes teachers more receptive to growth areas.
• Transparency is built in. Teachers always know what was captured and when feedback is shared. Nothing feels like a surprise evaluation because the process is collaborative and visible.

Practical Tips for Saving Time on Evaluations

Whether or not you adopt a tool like Trellis, there are strategies principals can use to make the evaluation process more efficient:

• Capture notes during the visit, not after. Even a few bullet points on your phone are better than trying to reconstruct the lesson from memory later.
• Use templates aligned to your framework. Pre-structured forms reduce decision fatigue and keep observations focused on what matters.
• Batch similar tasks. If you visit three classrooms in a morning, draft all three write-ups in one sitting rather than spreading them across the week.
• Leverage AI to draft, then edit. Starting from a draft is always faster than starting from a blank page. AI tools like Trellis generate the first version so you can focus your energy on refining the message.
• Prioritize frequency over formality. Short, frequent feedback touchpoints are more valuable than lengthy, infrequent evaluations. A five-minute walkthrough with a quick follow-up does more for teacher growth than a formal observation delayed by weeks.