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Interaction: Policy, Evaluation, and Practice in North Carolina Educator Personnel Evaluations
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| Presenter(s):
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| Sha Balizet,
Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning,
sbalizet@mcrel.org
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| Jouanna Crossland Wells,
Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning,
jcrossland-wells@mcrel.org
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| Abstract:
North Carolina policymakers boldly envisioned a comprehensive personnel appraisal (or evaluation) system to advance educational leadership and professionalism among teachers, principals, and superintendents. Using North Carolina as a case, we look at the interplay of policy with practice and the mediating role of evaluators. In this example, policymakers sought to shape educational practice by the lever of a set of new personnel appraisal systems, all based on the same foundational standards. The new appraisal systems will follow aligned processes and procedures across career levels and tracks, and share features such as 360-degree feedback and growth-oriented rubrics. Guided by the Personnel Evaluation Standards, evaluators investigated the perceived quality of the new systems through attitudes of stakeholders towards the new evaluation processes. This case illustrates the interactions of evaluators with policymakers and practioners, and may point towards future evaluation needs, as more policymakers adopt the comprehensive approach developed in North Carolina.
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An Evaluation of Meadowbrook K-8
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| Presenter(s):
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| Eleanor Spindler,
University of Colorado Boulder,
eleanor.spindler@colorado.edu
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| Amy Subert,
University of Colorado Boulder,
amy.subert@colorado.edu
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| Kenneth Howe,
University of Colorado Boulder,
ken.howe@colorado.edu
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| Abstract:
Over the last decade, many districts have implemented K-8 grade configurations in the hopes of raising student achievement (Hough, 2005). While some researchers have found positive achievement effects (Abella, 2005; Alspaugh, 1998; Offenberg, 2001), other research suggests those effects are actually attributable to differing student and teacher populations (Byrnes & Ruby, 2007). Through parent and teacher surveys, teacher focus-groups, and analysis of student achievement and enrollment patterns, this evaluation of an urban, K-8 public school seeks to determine the effectiveness of the upper grades (6-8). Currently, a majority of parents with students in grades K-5 choose other schools for 6-8, thus breaking the continuity that is the hallmark of K-8 schools. We will compare this school with 13 other K-8s in the district, controlling for size, SES, and ethnicity; we hope to examine the qualities of successful K-8s and the effects of an open-enrollment system of parental choice.
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Process and Evaluation Use and Organizational Consequences of Developing, Administering and Reporting on School Climate Surveys in the Albuquerque Public Schools
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| Presenter(s):
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| Michelle Osowski,
Albuquerque Public Schools,
osowski@aps.edu
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| Abstract:
Select schools within the Albuquerque Public School (APS) District have elected to include student and staff climate data for a more thorough understanding of the strengths of their school, and the barriers to changing practice and belief systems.
The project was three-fold: the first part was the systematic inquiry and participatory action research that preceded the development, administration and testing of two surveys that have been used in several elementary, middle and high schools within APS. The second part was the examination of the evaluation use, and the third part was the subsequent organizational consequences.
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