U.S. principals’ interpretation and implementation of teacher evaluation policies

Abstract

In the United States policymakers, states, and researchers are increasingly reliant on teacher evaluations as a means for identifying high-quality teachers. School principals are the primary school-based actors responsible for implementing teacher evaluation policies at the school level and must make sense of these policies at an ever-increasing pace. These sensemaking processes have great implications for how teacher evaluation policies play out in practice. In this paper I ask (a) what factors influence principals’ sensemaking of changing teacher evaluation policies and (b) how these factors influence both decision-making by principals, as well as the ways the policies are implemented. I use an exploratory case study approach, drawing on interviews and district specific documents from six public school principals in the U.S. state of Michigan. Findings suggest that, because teacher evaluation policies were tied to the employment of their teachers, principals made sense of and implemented these policies in very specific ways. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.