Improving Evaluation Skills of Supervisors in the Federal Way School District

This project is an attempt to provide the Federal Way School District with an observation system. The system was patterned after the Instrument for the Observation of Teaching Activities by a twelve member committee of District Administrators. The system was then implemented to all supervisory personnel through a series of five workshops in the Fall of 1977. The system\u27s success was monitored and an evaluation was made by teachers and other supervisors. Recommendations are for continued growth of this system

School principals’ views of teacher evaluation policy: lessons learned from two empirical studies

Teacher evaluation accountability policies are emerging world-wide. This paper examines principals’ perceptions of teacher evaluation in terms of commonalities and differences arising from two research projects conducted in Portugal and in the US. Perceptions of school principals in regard to a new policy on teacher evaluation as well as its perceived effects at school and conditions for its implementation will be analysed. Findings point to the challenges and successes of coping with mandated accountability measures in two different contexts. Principals balanced perceived conflicting goals, sought maintenance of positive teacher relationships and school culture, and managed the tensions of policy implementation and the making sense of its effects at school. Implications of the findings are discussed.CIEC – Research Centre on Child Studies, IE, UMinho (FCT R&D unit 317), PortugalNational Funds through the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) and co-financed by European Regional Development Funds (FEDER) through the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program (POCI) with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007562info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Study of Perceptions Held Toward Teacher Evaluation Policies and Practices by Teachers and Their Supervisors in Adventist Schools in Canada

Problem. Most school administrators and teachers deem teacher evaluation systems to be extremely stressful, of little or no value, and a barrier to high staff morale. The purpose of this study was to investigate the current teacher evaluation policies and practices and the perceptions held toward these policies and practices by selected elementary and secondary\u27 teachers and their supervisors in the Adventist schools in Canada. Method. The population of this study consisted of selected elementary and secondary teachers and their supervisors in the Adventist schools in Canada. Two hundred and twenty-five teachers and 48 supervisors were surveyed. The survey instrument used in the study was adapted from the one used by Hauge (1981). The instrument was designed to reflect the teachers\u27 evaluation policies and practices as perceived by elementary and secondary teachers and their supervisors. The survey instrument and the cover letters were sent to the supervisors and the teachers by first-class mail. The 47 hypotheses were tested at the .05 level o f significance using /-tests and chi-square to determine whether a significant difference existed between variables by comparing the group means and whether or not an association existed between variables by calculating discrepancies between observed and expected cell frequencies, respectively. Results. The findings of this research study generally confirm that: 1. The supervisors thought they had a better knowledge of their teachers’ teaching capabilities than their teachers thought they had. 2. Both supervisors and teachers perceived the evaluation process to be a useful one. 3. Both teachers and supervisors viewed the improvement of teaching performance as the main purpose of performance evaluation. 4. While supervisors and teachers agreed in their perception concerning the implementation of four basic components of the evaluation process, they disagreed on another four. The general picture, however, indicates that supervisors tended to view themselves as implementing the basic components of the evaluation process to a greater extent than teachers viewed them as doing. 5. Most supervisors reported having had formal training in performance evaluation before and after assuming the supervisory role. Supervisors reported that they felt competent and at ease in the evaluator\u27s role, and teachers concurred. 6. Both teachers and supervisors felt there was a need for more administrative assistance for supervisors so that they could have the time to conduct more frequent and more effective evaluations. They also felt that the evaluation process ought to include greater teacher involvement. Conclusion. From this study it can be concluded that most teachers and supervisors in Adventist schools in Canada deemed teacher evaluation policies and practices to be helpful. As well it was not as stressful, nor of little value as reported in the literature and pertinent research studies

The Relationship Between Teacher Perception Of Principals\u27 Leadership Behaviors And Student Achievement

The purpose of this research study was to determine whether a relationship exists between student achievement, as measured by school Quality of Distribution Index score, and school leadership based on staff perceptions of school leadership, as measured by the Survey of Supervisory Behavior. The leadership of seven schools was assessed by staff members in five different sub scales of leadership domains: human relations, trust/decision making, instructional leadership, control, and conflict. The seven schools sampled were comprised of four rural or county schools and three city schools. The subjects for this study were principals of standalone schools containing grades five, six, seven, and eight or some combination of the four grade levels. All 60 respondents to this study were teachers from a rural southern state. Of the respondents, 48.33% held a Bachelors degree, 71.66% had been at their schools six years or more, 81.66% had taught for six or more years, 95.00% were white, and 91.66% of participants were found to be teaching in their subject area. The survey instrument was comprised of five domains. All five domains and the instrument were correlated with QDI to determine whether relationships exist. None of the five domains were found to be statically significant in relation to QDI. Additionally, the Survey of Supervisory Behavior Instrument was not found to be statistically significant in relation to QDI

School organizational factors as predictors of student achievement: Principals’ perspective

This study aimed to deepen our understanding of how school organization factors can be used to predict students’ academic performance. In particular, factors examined were leadership skills, nature of students, parental involvement and the school environment. Using stratified and simple random sampling, a total of 152 principals were selected for the study. A survey questionnaire was used to collect data whose variance and regression was analyzed using ANOVA. The findings consolidate the importance of leadership skills, nature of students, learning environment and parents in predicting students learning success. All the four aspects of school organization contributed differently to predicting students’ academic performance with the Principals' Leadership Skills having the highest impact while parental involvement made the least contribution. Findings of this study are important to educational administrators to ensure a supportive learning environment for the students. In addition education authorities both at national and local levels should enhance field inspections to rate the learning atmosphere. The study also serves to contribute to the body of knowledge on school organizational factors in addition to triggering the need for more research in this domain

The relationship of expressed vision and instructional supervision in a selected school district

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between the vision of a selected school district and practices it has undertaken in the area of instructional supervision in two schools. The school district was identified through a reputational survey process as one having exemplary instructional supervision practices. This case study used qualitative techniques drawing upon principles of naturalistic inquiry. Semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and observation, with accompanying field-notes, represented the major forms of data collection. Interviews were conducted with the Superintendent, the Director of Education Services, the Board Chair, the Coordinator of Human Resources, an Area Supervisor, two principals, and seven teachers (representing the two schools). Observations were conducted at the school sites and district office. District level and school-based documents were analyzed. The data collection process began in the schools and subsequently moved to system-level investigation.A conceptual framework based upon the policy perspectives of Guba (1984) guided the study. Vision as meta-policy (Downey, 1988), policy-in-intention, policy-in-action, and policy-in-experience were used as a frame for the analysis of policy and practice.There was a low level of awareness of the expressed vision of the district among the respondents. Most of the respondents identified only one or two elements in their description of the vision. Paradoxically, all respondents seemed to feel that they were working in harmony with the vision of the Board. “Implied vision” was used to describe the interpretations placed by school personnel on the actions and words of the board and senior staff. This phenomenon presented a vision different from the expressed vision of the system. The implied vision seemed to suggest a clear direction to those in the organization, but it was not necessarily consistent with the expressed vision. An examination of the relationship between the elements of the vision and the formal instructional supervision program (the PPP) revealed congruency on four of six elements. The examination of policy-in-experience showed that the PPP was operationalized as it was espoused in the policy, but from different perspectives, and with different levels of detail from school to school. More important, the implementation of the PPP seemed to depend on the actions and the direction of the principals, who had adapted the formal policy to their own styles and to current trends. The leadership provided by the principal emerged from the data as critical to the success of the supervision process in both schools. The term ‘policy-alive’ was suggested to describe the impact on student learning and professional growth that a principal can have through the instructional supervision process. The findings highlighted the need for communication and ongoing dialogue to maximize congruence among vision, policy, and practice. This process should be planned to avoid the drift to multiple interpretations or implied vision.A heuristic was presented, integrating vision, policy, and outcomes. The heuristic tied together some of the learnings from the study and gave a visual representation of the systemic functions of vision and instructional supervision