What is good leadership?
*Teamwork
*Respect for all
*Communication
*Immediate attention To wrong-doing/mistakes/data errors
*Resolving differences/misconduct fairly
*Never discriminating, lying, hurting someone, cheating
*Never deliberately abusing someone
* Putting a positive outlook first
Those are some of my picks.
Betsy Combier
betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials
Principal Leadership Is Key Factor in Teachers’ Satisfaction with Evaluation Systems
Posted by Jessica Bailey on July 21, 2016
As an educator, researcher, or someone interested in the field of education, have you ever wondered whether teachers are satisfied with their evaluation process? How they perceive their school’s professional climate? Are the two are related?
To further advance the research agenda of the Northeast Educator Effectiveness Research Alliance at REL Northeast & Islands, several core planning group members wanted to understand how new teacher evaluation systems are related to school professional climate. A 2015 REL Northeast & Islands study of eight New Hampshire districts found that elements of a strong school professional climate—such as principal leadership, teacher influence, and trust—are positively related to teacher support for a new evaluation system and that teacher influence, in particular, is related to the fidelity of implementation of the new system.
To further examine the relationship between teachers’ self-reported views of their school’s professional climate and their satisfaction with their formal evaluation process, REL researchers Natalie Lacireno-Paquet, Candice Bocala, and I analyzed data from the National Center for Education Statistics 2011/12 Schools and Staffing Survey and the 2012/13 Teacher Follow-up Survey. These surveys include questions on two factors that are related to school climate: principal leadership and teacher influence over school policy and decision making.
The Institute of Education Sciences published our analysis in the May 2016 report “Relationship Between School Professional Climate and Teachers’ Satisfaction with the Evaluation Process.”
We found that:
- Teachers’ perceptions of their principals’ leadership was associated with their satisfaction with the evaluation system and that, specifically, the more positively teachers rated their principals’ leadership, the more likely they were to report satisfaction with their evaluation process.
- The rating that teachers received on their evaluation was also associated with their satisfaction with their evaluation process. Those rated satisfactory or higher were more likely to be satisfied than those rated at levels below satisfactory.
- There was no
association between teachers’ views of their influence in the school and their satisfaction with the evaluation system. - Teachers whose evaluation process included student test score outcomes were 2.5 times less likelyto be satisfied with that process than teachers whose evaluations did not include student test scores.
While state and district requirements continue to change during this transformative period of accountability reform, some form of educator evaluation is here to stay for the foreseeable future. Therefore, states and districts may want to consider how to increase teacher satisfaction with the evaluation process. To support this observation, we know from our research that teachers are more satisfied with the process when they have a principal who establishes a positive school professional climate and specifically emulates strong leadership. Further research is needed, however, to determine whether this relationship is causal. We also know from our research that teachers typically prefer not to have student test scores included in their evaluations, which is another topic worthy of further study.
Related media links:
Education Week: Teacher Evaluations: The Role of Principal Leadership
EdCentral – New America: What Do Teachers Actually Think About Teacher Evaluations?
Relationship
Between School Professional Climate and Teachers’ Satisfaction with the
Evaluation Process
Research Alliance: Northeast Educator Effectiveness Research Alliance
Principal
Investigator: Natalie Lacireno-Paquet
LINK
Overview: This study, conducted in collaboration with
the Northeast Educator Effectiveness Research Alliance, reports on
the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of school professional climate
and their satisfaction with their formal evaluation process using the responses
of a nationally representative sample of teachers from the Schools and Staffing
Surveys.
Specifically, the study used logistic regression analysis to
examine whether teachers’ satisfaction with their evaluation was associated
with two measures of school professional climate (principal leadership and
teacher influence), teacher and school characteristics, and the inclusion of
student test scores in the evaluation system.
The results indicate that
teachers’ perceptions of their principals’ leadership was associated with their
satisfaction with the evaluation system—the more positively teachers rated
their principal’s leadership, the more likely they were to report satisfaction
with their evaluation process. The rating teachers received on their evaluation
was also associated with their satisfaction, with those rated satisfactory or
higher more likely to be satisfied. Teachers whose evaluation process included
student test score outcomes were less likely to be satisfied with that process
than teachers whose evaluations did not include student test scores.
The findings reinforce current literature
about the importance of the school principal in establishing positive school professional climate. The report
recommends additional research related to the implementation of new educatorevaluation systems.
