Improving Teaching through Observation and Feedback

Beyond State and Federal Mandates

Alyson L. Lavigne, Thomas L Good

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781138022515
• eBook ISBN: 9781317692256
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Éducation générale

In response to Race to the Top, schools nationwide are rapidly overhauling their teacher evaluation processes. Often forced to develop and implement these programs without adequate extra-institutional support or relevant experience, already-taxed administrators need accessible and practical resources. Improving Teaching through Observation and Feedback brings cutting-edge research and years of practical experience directly to those who need them. In five concise chapters, Thomas Good and Alyson Lavigne briefly outline the history of RttT and then move quickly and authoritatively to a discussion of best practices. This book is a perfect resource for administrators reworking their processes for new evaluation guidelines.

1
Being a Principal in an Era of High-Stakes Teacher Evaluation

We will illustrate (and most of our readers know) principals work long hours and have difficult jobs. Yet policy makers now call for principals to spend more time supervising teachers. This advocacy is done without any advice about how principals can find time to do this or any evidence that increasing the amount of time principals spend in classrooms will increase student achievement. Principals today are under increased pressure to improve their schools, and advice about how they should do this abounds.

With this context in mind, this chapter describes certain characteristics of today’s school principal. We look at factors such as salary, years of experience, and other demographic variables. Some information is presented as an average across the U.S. Some information is reported at the state level to show that context is often important and that there is considerable variation in principals’ beliefs and job situations.

Next, we report on principals’ beliefs about their job. Although conceptions of the “good” principal continue to evolve, consensus is that the job is very demanding. It is useful to consider issues where principals believe they have more or less influence and to consider the levels of job satisfaction and stress that principals experience. Then, we turn to a description of what principals are expected to do based on considerations from theory, professional societies, and those who study school leadership. We describe the many roles that principals are expected to and do play. Lee Sherman (2000) provides the perfect advance organizer:

Research tells us that principals are the linchpins in the enormously complex workings, both physical and human, of a school. The job calls for a staggering range of roles: psychologist, teacher, facilities manager, philosopher, police officer, diplomat, social worker, mentor, PR director, coach, cheerleader. The principalship is both lowly and lofty. In one morning, you might deal with a broken window and a broken home. A bruised knee and a bruised ego. A rusty pipe and a rusty teacher.

(p. 2)

After describing the roles noted by Sherman, we illustrate that expectations for what good principals “should do” are varied and complex, and often change without any evidence to suggest that the recommended changes will work. Thus, it is not surprising that the research base on effective principals is undeveloped as definitions of what constitutes good practice vary over time.

We examine principals’ tasks and see that they respond to an overwhelming set of duties replete with frequent interruptions. Sometimes they must do two or more things simultaneously. Principals face many demands, but they have limited time available to complete duties. We explore how principals use their time, and we summarize the results across several studies. One major finding is that principals generally do not spend much time observing/evaluating teachers. And, despite policy makers’ (and state and federal mandates’) push for principals to spend more time supervising teachers, those who have studied and who have reported this finding have not recommended that principals necessarily spend more time on this activity.

We end this chapter considering modern-day issues that characterize the work and lives of school leaders. We revisit what is known about what principals do and within the context of new reform demands. The fact that principals spend little time on supervision and evaluation creates tension with the state and federal mandates that call for increased time spent on these tasks. We ask: Where would principals find the time to do this? Do they have this knowledge? We address these questions in Chapter 2.

The Face and Voice of School Principals

Table 1.1 shows (based upon data from the U.S. Department of Education 2011–2012) how principals vary in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, highest degree earned, average age, experience, annual salary, and average hours spent on the job per week. For example, 51.6% of principals are female. The average number of years of experience of principals is 7.2; the average salary for principals for fewer than 3 years is $83,500, and for those with 10 or more years of experience, $96,000. The average age of principals is 48, and the average hours spent per week on all school-related activities is 58.1.

Table 1.1 also reports these same data during 2007–2008. We see that principal characteristics are fairly stable during this time period. For example, the percentage of teachers who are female, male, and white remains essentially the same. One exception is that principal salaries at all levels increased notably (given the economy) from 2007 to 2012. And this is especially true for principals with 10 or more years of experience (whose salary rose by $14,000). We have presented averages for principals across the U.S., but describing principals is much more complicated than averages suggest. For example, Table 1.2 illustrates the variability in principal salary in five randomly chosen states.

TABLE 1.1 Principal Characteristics: 2011–2012 and 2007–2008

Principal Characteristics	2011–2012	2007–2008
Gender
Female	51.6	51.0
Male	48.4	49.0
Race/ethnicity
White	80.3	80.9
Black	10.1	10.6
Hispanic	6.8	6.5
Other	2.8	2.0
Highest degree earned
Bachelor’s degree or less	2.2	1.5
Master’s degree	61.7	61.1
Education specialist or professional diploma	26.2	29.0
Doctorate or professional degree	9.9	8.4
Average age	48	49
Experience
Average years of total experience	7.2	8.1
Average years at current school	4.2	4.8
Average annual salary, by years of experience
Fewer than 3 years	$83,500	$73,500
3–9 years	$90,900	$80,200
10+ years	$96,000	$82,700
Average days in contract year	230	227
Percent of principals newly hired	8.6	9.3
Average hours spent per week on
All school-related activities	58.1	58.4
Interacting with students	22.5	20.8
Percentage of principals who thought they had a major influence on:
Evaluating teachers at their school	96.2	94.2
Hiring new full-time teachers at their school	85.1	90.4

Compensation for principals in Pennsylvania is considerably higher, at all levels of experience, than in Montana. The level of absolute compensation for principals needs to be studied in relation to the fact that the principal contract year is roughly 230 days. Principals’ salaries also need to be considered in terms of principals’ job satisfaction, the extent to which they can control work conditions, and the amount of stress they experience. Not only do principals’ salaries vary, but also their beliefs about the extent to which they can influence their job conditions vary (see Table 1.3).

TABLE 1.2 Average Annual Salary for Public School Principals in Five Randomly Selected States by Years of Experience

State	Average annual salary	Less than 3 years	3 to 9 years	10 years or more
United States	90,500	83,500	90,900	96,000
Louisiana	74,800	71,300	74,200	79,600
Montana	65,800	53,200	68,900	75,700
Pennsylvania	98,100	92,100	96,600	105,500
Utah	82,100	72,700	83,900	84,500
Wyoming	92,500	80,700	90,100	99,900

Source: U.S. Department of Education (2013).

TABLE 1.3 Percentage of Public School Principals in Five Randomly Selected States Who Thought They Had a Major Influence on Decisions Concerning Various Activities at Their School

The context in which the principal operates is important. Although virtually all principals believe they have a dominant voice in evaluating teachers, principals clearly believe that they have considerably less influence on the curriculum. This is the case in all selected states but especially so in Ohio and Utah. The fact that principals are accountable for student achievement growth—yet have little control over curriculum—must be frustrating to some. Readers interested in states other than those reported can consult the National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey website (https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/sass/).

School Principals: Role Conceptualizations and Expectations

Society, various organizations, and those who study the work of principals hold various beliefs about what principals should do—what roles and responsibilities fall under their job functions. The list is always expanding. Table 1.4 describes some of the work supported by the Wallace Foundation partnership with one school district to broaden the conceptualization of how principals should behave. For additional examples see the Wallace Foundation (www.wallacefoundation.org).

TABLE 1.4 Leadership Standards at One School District

Further, federal and state agencies are not shy about prescribing activities for principals and teachers. These prescribed activities sometimes change abruptly and often radically. For example, in the 1980s it was commonly advocated that principals were instructional leaders (with an emphasis on improving instruction and student learning) and that effective schools were differentiated from less effective schools because of principals’ instructional leadership. Ron Edmonds’ (1982) characterization of effective schools was widely cited. Edmonds’ correlates follow:

• The leadership of the principal characterized by substantial attention to the quality of instruction.
• A pervasive and broadly understood instructional focus and orderly, safe clim...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Being a Principal in an Era of High-Stakes Teacher Evaluation
• 2 Race to the Top and Beyond: The Demand for More Classroom Observation
• 3 What Do We Know about Good Teaching?
• 4 Research on Improving Teaching and Student Achievement: The Role of the Principal
• 5 Considerations for Principals When Working with Teachers to Improve Practice
• Appendices
• Index