VARC, CPRE Contribute to Research in Urban Education Policy Initiative Brief

September 4, 2014

A new policy brief published by the Research on Urban Policy Initiative (RUEPI), co-authored by Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) Assistant Scientist Steven M. Kimball, Value-Added Research Center (VARC) Associate Director Bradley Carl and former VARC staff member Liz Barkowski, explores the expanded role of principals in newly implemented teacher evaluation systems across the country.

Released in July, the 20-page brief concludes with policy, practice and research recommendations to help ensure the future success of educator evaluation systems. RUEPI, based at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Education, focuses on producing peer-reviewed policy briefs to improving urban education.

The researchers examined the work demands, learning and resource needs, and available supports for principals in three states with new teacher evaluation systems. The report makes it clear that success of teacher evaluation systems depends on “the will, skill and capacity of school principals.”

“School principals have traditionally had, and will in most cases continue to have, primary responsibility for evaluating the 3.7 million public school teachers nationwide,” the report says, adding, “It is the school principal who must lead and oversee the change process at the school level.”

However, due to time constraints and antipathetic school culture, principals may struggle in enacting new educator effectiveness measures and conducting thorough evaluations, according to the report. To better support principals, the brief recommends that school districts relieve some of the immense burden of work facing principals by identifying and cultivating additional evaluators of teaching, especially those with specific content expertise who can generate more credible feedback than a principal alone.

The report also calls for the implementation of strategic or differentiated evaluation systems, focusing principals and evaluators assessments, support and feedback on less experienced or struggling teachers. Furthermore, principals need additional support and resources from their states and districts so they can learn how to provide effective feedback to teachers and other best practices. Teachers also need additional materials to help them learn and improve from the feedback they receive from principals.

Besides Carl and Kimball, the brief was co-authored by Shelby Cosner, an associate professor of education organizational and leadership at the University of Illinois at Chicago, as well as Barkowski and Curtis Jones. Now a research associate for research and evaluation at SEDL, Barkowski formerly worked as a research associate for VARC, as did Jones, who is now a senior scientist in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.