Julie H. Rucker
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Activity #3: School Self-Assessment Instrument Analysis
For this assignment, I asked six teachers at my high school to complete a self-assessment instrument that focused on four strands: organizational climate, processes, management practices, and outcomes. After collecting the instruments, I compared the responses to my own self-assessment instrument. I averaged the responses of the six teachers to compare to my own responses.
• Organizational Climate
All teachers and myself were all within a few tenths of a point in agreement on all areas of this section of the instrument. We all agreed that the climate of the school in which we teacher is pleasant. School climate is also an important component in job satisfaction and teacher retention, evident in the fact that all six of these teachers have been employed by my school system for three plus years.
• Processes
Where we disagreed:
Number 1: The superintendent of my school system emphasizes quality instructional practices.
Number 2: The superintendent of my school system encourages goal/objective accomplishments in order to determine quality instruction.
Number 7: The superintendent of this school system holds teachers accountable for achieving
instructional goals and objectives.
Number 10: The superintendent has identified procedures to assist teachers in meeting the
goals and objectives of instructional quality.
The six teachers and I disagreed on all of these areas related to the superintendent's role in the school system. I was more critical of the superintendent than these teachers, often by two points or more. I do not think that our superintendent is doing a poor job. On the contrary; I think she is doing a wonderful job and is very concerned about teachers and the fact that our jobs often are not enjoyable any more because of the bureaucracy involved in public education. She is concerned for students and our school system. I was more critical because our superintendent is not visible (though she is seen in schools more often than previous superintendents) to teachers and very seldom addresses groups of teachers on any of these points. That does not mean she does not assign an assistant superintendent to do these things. I do think that #4 & #5 are dealt with at the school level and that the superintendent's feelings are made clear to administrators who handle these processes. The items in this section are being accomplished, but they are not done directly by the superintendent; instead, she delegates these responsibilities to administrators at the local school level.
• Management Practices
Where we disagreed:
Number 1: The system calls groups of teachers together to identify areas of instruction needing system assistance.
Number 10: The system has established improvement teams who come together to solve quality-related programs .
In both of these areas, the six teachers and I disagreed by at least two points per statement. Again, I was more critical and disagreed with the statements while the other teachers agreed. I gave our system a 2 for number six whereas the others rated the system a 4.2. This could mean that they tended to agree more than disagree with the statement. I personally feel that teachers should be given more input in identifying areas of instruction where there are problems. Our school system has begun to take steps in this area this year by forming a “Leadership Team” made up of one teacher from each academic as well as tech/career prep area, but the only reason we have met was to talk with the “Leadership Facilitator” assigned to us by the state DOE as a result of not making AYP for 2 years. Our administration does ask questions of department heads, but as a whole, I think we have much room for improvement in this area.
• Outcomes
Where we disagreed:
Number 1: The system encourages the use of a variety of measurement techniques to assess student progress in developing human relations and/or citizenship skills.
Number 5: The superintendent of the school system conducts programs that adequately prepare the teachers to promote quality instruction.
Number 6: The superintendent of this school system provides continuous assistance to teachers so they can promote quality instruction.
Number 10: The superintendent of this school system assists teachers in promoting high expectations of learning to students' parents.
Just as in section II, we disagreed mostly on statements that reflect participation of the superintendent. I think I read these statements more literally than the other six teachers. The fact that our individual schools have implemented a system-wide school improvement plan (Learning Focused Schools) several years ago may have been a factor in the answers provided by the six teachers. These items are being addressed, but they are addressed at the local school level, and our superintendent, while the one ultimately responsible for these decisions, is often not visual in these processes at the school level.
Interesting item of agreement:
Number 8: Teachers in this school system are rewarded by the organization for promoting quality instruction.
We all scored a 2 on this item. The reason I want to bring attention to it is that I think this is a problem area for many school systems. I have previously been involved in a business where employees were praised for successes, both small and large, but little praise, other than an occasional thank you and a “teacher appreciation” day from the administrators, actually occurs. Praise can be a wonderful incentive—we tell our teachers to praise students, don't we? But how can administrators better use praise and positive rewards to promote quality instruction?