Disciplines
Education
Abstract
In 2013, the Michigan Department of Education required all public school districts to adopt a state-approved evaluation system. The Department’s rationale for this change was to increase teacher accountability and thus to improve student achievement. Because schoollevel administrators are responsible for implementing district policy and acting as the primary evaluators of teacher performance, the authors conducted a study to identify the type of administrator feedback principals give in observations and evaluations. In this 3-year study, evaluation data were collected from random districts within a rural Michigan Intermediate School District and analyzed for average total score and manner of feedback. Three primary results emerged. First, the rating count and average score per element rated varied widely; second, evaluators frequently provided comments with each rating; and finally, these evaluators’ comments were not actionable for teacher performance improvement. The results of this work suggest a need for clarity around the definition and purpose of feedback in teacher performance evaluations.
Original Citation
Vandermolen, R. & Meyer-Looze, C. (June 2021). A Regional Case Study: Effective Administrator Feedback to Inform Teacher Performance. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin International Journal for Professional Educators. Vol. 87-5.
ScholarWorks Citation
Vandermolen, Richard M. and Meyer-Looze, Catherine L., "A Regional Case Study: Effective Administrator Feedback to Inform Teacher Performance" (2021). Peer Reviewed Articles. 19.
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/coe_articles/19
