Going "Rogue": How Principals Use Agency When Enacting New Teacher Evaluation Systems

• In Event: 25.009 - Interactions Between School Leaders and Teachers and Impact on Improvement

Abstract

Despite major changes to teacher evaluation since 2009, scant research examines how the people arguably at the center of making such changes work--principals--enact it. This paper describes how principals exercise agency as they implement evaluation policy in their schools. Based on 65 qualitative interviews with 37 principals in 14 districts, we use structure-agency theory to analyze how and why principals adapted the state evaluation model. We further show how these modifications reflect individual and district influences.

Authors

• Morgaen L. Donaldson, University of Connecticut - Storrs

• Sarah L. Woulfin, University of Connecticut