Implementation of Performance Feedback in a Statewide Principal Evaluation System: A Text Analysis of Principals' Written Feedback

• In Event: Implementation of Education Policies to Improve School- and System-Level Leadership

Abstract

Evaluation feedback is a core component of principal evaluation systems and presents a mechanism for improving principal performance. Yet researchers know little about the feedback that principals receive. Using statewide administrative data from Tennessee, including the written feedback entries that principals receive from their supervisors, we explore the nature of principals’ evaluation feedback in the context of a formal statewide administrator evaluation system. We find considerable variation in the amount, affective language, and specificity of feedback that principals receive. These inconsistencies raise questions of whether all principals are getting the high-quality feedback they need to improve as instructional leaders, or whether the degree of support principals receive from evaluation feedback is a function of supervisor discretion and district organization and resources.

Authors

• Karin Gegenheimer, Vanderbilt University

• Ellen B. Goldring, Vanderbilt University