This study examined the perceptions of US school principals toward one US state's revamped teacher tenure law and how principals perceived that the law affected their ability to evaluate and retain effective teachers. Principal interviews indicated the law had a positive impact on their ability to evaluate and retain effective teachers despite…

This quantitative study examined perceptions of K-12 public school principals toward the Tennessee teacher tenure law under Senate Bill 1528 and how principals perceived that the law has affected their ability to evaluate and retain effective teachers. The Tennessee Teacher Tenure Principal Perception Survey was adopted and slightly modified from…

School principals play a critical role in evaluating teachers and providing feedback, but high-stakes evaluation policies at the local and state levels can create ethical dilemmas for principals. In this case, an underresourced rural school principal has to report a certain number of "ineffective" teachers to meet a requirement from the…

Ten years ago, the reform of teacher evaluation was touted as a mechanism to improve teacher effectiveness. In response, virtually every state redesigned its teacher evaluation system. Recently, a growing narrative suggests these reforms failed and should be abandoned. This response may be overly simplistic. We explore the variability of New York…

Over both recent years and many decades, California districts have produced a range of substantively different approaches to teacher evaluation, demonstrating both the potential for district-level action generally and specific design options. In this report, the authors focus on teacher evaluation programs and further focus on the features of…

This report presents selected findings from the Public School Principal Status Data File of the 2016-17 Principal Follow-up Survey (PFS). The PFS is a nationally representative sample survey of public K-12 schools in the 50 states and District of Columbia and was initiated to inform discussions and decisions regarding principal attrition and…

When the state of Washington identified the bottom 5 percent of its lowest-performing schools in 2011, five of the 19 schools in Pasco School District made the list. All elementary schools, they had failed to meet academic performance goals every year since the state began measuring schools against them in 2006. Over a three-year period, only 30…

School principals in Illinois face an ethical dilemma when evaluating tenured teachers. Giving an unsatisfactory rating and placing a tenured teacher under a remediation plan opens the door to a time-consuming process filled with legal and financial issues that will strain relationships in the school. However, giving a less than honest rating…

The purpose of this study was to examine the ethical beliefs and preparation practices of high school principals when making decisions on the evaluation of teacher performance for retention and/or tenure. The participants consisted of a total of 10 high school principals, associate principals, and assistant principals who evaluate the performance…

For decades, when budgets dictated teacher cutbacks, no judgment of instructional skills was required. No evaluation of student results changed the outcome. No one consulted a summative evaluation. Schools just went to the personnel file, determined hiring dates, and the last one in lost her or his chair. In the new political landscape, lawmakers…

Unless school leaders do more to help teachers, students, parents, taxpayers, and other key groups understand the need for change and the key roles they can play, school improvement will be spotty and nearly impossible to sustain, writes Public Agenda senior fellow Jean Johnson. Citing multiple surveys of these groups conducted by Public Agenda,…

During the 2010, 2011, and 2012 legislative sessions, a combination of federal policy incentives and newly elected governors and legislative majorities in many states following the 2010 elections sparked a wave of legislation addressing teacher effectiveness. More than 20 states passed legislation designed to address educator effectiveness by…

This article takes advantage of a unique policy change to examine how principals make decisions regarding teacher dismissal. In 2004, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and Chicago Teachers Union signed a new collective bargaining agreement that gave principals the flexibility to dismiss probationary teachers for any reason and without the…

This study looks at the policies and practices shaping teacher quality in the Kansas City, Missouri School District (KCMSD). It is part of a series of analyses by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) in school districts across the nation. Framing this analysis are five policy goals for improving teacher quality: (1) Staffing. Teacher…

For students, quality teaching means the difference between a bright or potentially dim future. School principals face several challenges that work against recommending contract non-renewal for incompetent teachers. This study investigates the reasons that school principals recommend contract non-renewal of probationary teachers. Targeted…