A Policy and Political History of Educational Supervision and Teacher Evaluation

• In Event: The Politics and Practice of Teacher Evaluation Policy

Abstract

We map the history of educational supervision and teacher evaluation in the context of formal roles and socio-political dynamics of historical eras in education, primarily focusing on the Progressive Era (the late 1800s) through the present day. In the 20th Century, the understanding of schooling, and educational supervision responded to several post World War II eras, including the Cold War, the Civil Rights movement, and especially, the ongoing era of increased accountability through standards, assessment, and school choice options. We draw on a variety of sources, including legislation, governmental reports (e.g., A Nation at Risk), educational administration textbooks, and peer-reviewed research studies. We examine the evolving roles and theories of educational supervision, including its shifting purposes and definitions, across these historical eras. Further, we discuss the development of professional identities among teachers and educational leaders, the development of differentiation of educational supervision among educators and educational leadership roles and positions as well as the specializations and expertise within these roles. We then turn our attention to the politicization of student learning outcomes and their conflation with accountability of states, districts, schools, and individual educators (teachers and educational leaders).
Our history explores the impact and pressures dating from the common school movement and the Progressive era. Globalizing forces at the turn of the 20th Century share many of the 21st Century’s contextual factors (e.g., urbanicity, immigration, and educator demographics). However, the 20th Century’s legacy includes a paternalistic hierarchy of school management and district governance, and the preponderance of females in the teaching ranks. The expansion of responsibilities and budgetary pressures caused by economic downturns (e.g., the Great Recession) increase challenges for educational leadership and the opportunity costs associated with instructional supervision. The 21st Century’s globalizing educational policies mirror U.S. federal legislative efforts (e.g., America 2000, Goals 2000, No Child Left Behind, and Race to the Top) with mandated accountability systems for districts, schools, and individual educators—and how these shaped instructional supervision and evaluation over time. Countering nationalism and partisan perspectives on education reform and instructional supervision raise serious questions about the future of teaching as a profession with the pressures for increased teacher quality. Educational supervision and teacher evaluation policies historically have contended with widely varying influences of teacher unions, management-labor relations, and teacher labor markets across U.S. states and districts in the midst of social policy debates.
The political and policy history of U.S. schooling encompasses the importance of instructional supervision and teacher evaluation for ensuring optimal teaching and learning. Despite such lofty goals, questions about who legitimately supervises teachers, how to evaluate teachers, and how supervisors improve teaching practices remain contested political matters in the micro-political realms of schools and macro-policy arenas for educational accountability policy.

Authors

• William Kyle Ingle, University of Louisville

• Jane Clark Lindle, Clemson University