Reply to Are MCPS schools ever evaluated by the Central Office?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Actually, as a MCPS teacher, I'd like principals to be held to higher standards than they are currently. Unannounced observations would be nice. Whenever my principal's boss comes to our school my principal puts on a dog and pony show, complete with homemade snacks, and the boss just eats it up (literally and figuratively).

I'd like the boss to see how the principal behaves when no one is scheduled to come for a visit. Kind of like how teachers have unannounced observations. Because there is a night and day difference but no one would ever see that during the highly scheduled and structured visits. I would also like for associate superintendents to solicit feedback from school staff on what actually goes on in the school.

Pipedream, though. [/quote]

Unannounced visits really wouldn't make a difference for a crappy principal unless the superintendent walked in on the exact moment a principal was taking a nap or berating a teacher. A principal's day looks so different at every moment whereas a teacher's is much more predictable in terms of where you'll be, who you're with and what's going on. Also during an unannounced visit, a principal can stop and chat with the superintendent. When a teacher is observed, whether announced or unannounced, the lesson goes on. There is little, if any, interaction between the teacher and principal.

[b]Surveys, on the other hand, are great ways to tap into what's going on. The key is to make sure they're written well. Is there any kind of Working Conditions Survey in MCPS? In Fairfax, one is administered every 2 years, and it's publicly reported. Go to www.fcpswcs.org to see the types of questions. [/quote][/b]

Teacher PP here. There are climate surveys every year in mcps. The questions are pretty bad. Like "do you have a best friend at work?"  Plus at schools with a principal and an assistant principal there is nothing that differentiates between them on the survey. So if you have a terrible principal but a great AP, you can't give specific feedback on each individual. But none of that really matters because my principal told the whole staff that those questions about leadership pertain to only the school's leadership team (comprised of teachers), not the administration. So, if that is the case, there are zero questions on the survey asking for feedback on the administrators.

Our climate survey came back with some pretty dismal numbers this year, and instead of the principal reflecting on why that occurred, the principal said that next year the staff should meet before taking the survey to make sure that we all are on the same page with regard to understanding the questions to make sure we're answering them appropriately. In other words, coaching our responses. Great survey validity![/quote]

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