Standards versus Expectations - Leave No Doubts

It's September.  Does your staff know what your expectations are?

Unfortunately, many supervisors often confuse summative evaluation criteria with personal expectations.  The distinction between the two are immense and the consequences of confusing them – often at the cost of never explaining personal expectations to a staff – can make the difference between an adequate versus exemplary organization.  It can also make the difference between a supportive versus distrustful, confident versus insecure staff.

Hopefully, whatever formal evaluation tool you use in your system, it is based on research-supported standards.  It is commonplace now for most systems to require a fairly uniform application of procedures, timelines, and observation protocols in which all staff are required to be trained.  Much has been made of providing adequate training to the staff as well as to the administrators – with special focus on inter-rater reliability.  Inter-rater reliability is a reasonable goal, but a difficult objective to reach.  One reason why 100% inter-rater reliability is unattainable is that no appraiser can completely ignore or eliminate their personal biases and prejudices.

Over time I have become increasingly convinced that the single largest distinction between low-performing or adequate campuses and exemplary campuses is the degree to which the administration has or has not established and explained the mandated standards and personal expectations to their staff. In her book, It's Being Done, Karin Chenoweth, provides clear evidence regarding the importance of establishing clear standards and expectations for both students and staff.

I argue that what causes differences of opinion regarding any job performance is the part that our personal expectations bring to influence on any model of standards that are being applied.  In other words, I can explain all the accepted standards that are contained in the state’s adopted evaluation model (PDAS), but if I fail to include my personal biases and prejudices, my staff is left blind, and their evaluations will be less that honest.

Every administrator, supervisor, and evaluator has a responsibility to guarantee that those they evaluate are as informed and aware of all factors about their job performance which will be held up for accountability – rather stated or not, obvious or implied.

If I had not experienced the ridiculous application of personal bias in the evaluation process, I might not appreciate it fully.  In past years I have been criticized in my summative observations for such things as “being too involved in the community”, “wearing a mustache”, “not raising enough for a community charity”, “failing to have my cafeteria properly cleaned by 9am”, and “not replacing broken door number signs fast enough.” 

Interestingly enough, I’ve never been criticized for lack of leadership in the area of instruction.  But in other areas, the criticisms have always been based on the biases and prejudices of the current administrator.  I was never told that my campus level of giving to a certain charity would be on my summative evaluation.  When I questioned why, I learned that my superintendent sat on the board of directors. Had I known, yes, I would have turned up my efforts a notch. Why? Because it was obviously an expectation of my job performance.  I just didn't know it.

Thus, the question: what personal expectations do I have for my staff.  What biases and prejudices do I hold that will influence my evaluation of staff.  And have I informed staff of these expectations?

Have you?

I have spent a great deal of time going over both state-mandated standards as well as my own personal expectations for staff.  Through inservice, via email, in private conferences, and with feedback after all walk-throughs I try to leave no question in anyone's mind what I am looking for.

[I am attaching a brochure which I give to staff which is used as a discussion starter in staff development for outlining my standards and expectations.   Download walkthrough_brochure.pdf ]

Whether it is the application and evaluation of mandated standards or compliance with my personal desires for staff performance, when it comes to the high quality of accomplishment that is our goal for this campus, there should be no doubts about what the expectations are.

It's Being Done - Academic Success in Unexpected School, Karin Chenoweth, Harvard Education Press, 2007

Technorati Tags: Staff_Evaluation Standards High_Expectations Educational_Leadership

Comments

[Tim in Philadelphia]

Well, I now feel better. When I was a juinor in college I participated in what amounted to a pre-student teaching experience. Once a week, I spent half the day at an elementary school.
At the end of the experience, I received my evaluation. I was marked "unsatisfactory" under the "professionalism" category. The reason? I never once wore a tie. The thing that made it strange/funny/absurd was prior to my first day the teacher called me and told me I didn't have to wear a tie. She noted that in the comments section but wrote "even though I told him he didn't have to wear a tie, I thought he would get the hint from the other male teachers wearing ties". I was a 20 year old kid. Tell a 20 year old he doesn't have to wear a tie, and chances are he won't wear one! Duh!
I appreciate you let your staff know what you are expecting. There is nothing worse than a "gotcha" kick in the gut by a superior. The very first day I wasn't wearing a tie, my mentor teacher should have pulled me aside and said, "hey, I know I told you not to wear a tie, but on second thought, could you start wearing one next time? Thanks!". I would have and thought nothing of it.
Not sure the point of my above story. Other than the "tie lady" must be a sister of your "mustache person" and a cousin of your "broken door person".
You were probably hoping the evaluation would give you things to work on as a principal and a leader. It didn't.
The thing that upset me the most about my "tie lady" student teaching experience, wasn't that I got marked down as unprofessional. Over the years since the incident (this happened in 1994 or 1995) I have learned that there is much, much more to being a professional educator than how one dresses or what one wears or doesn't wear around their neck.
What upset me the most was that this person didn't once offer me ANY encouragement or comment (negative, positive or otherwise!) after any of my lessons. No advice, nothin'.
And that was the biggest shame of it all.

[Greg Farr]

Tim:
PRECISELY! Thank you for adding a great example of what I'm talking about. I bet if we collected similar stories, we'd have a list of incredible examples of how we have inadvertently made otherwise SUPERIOR teachers feel completely inferior with either misplaced or unclear personal expectations.
Greg

[Barbara]

Thanks for sharing the brochure. It gave a concrete way for me to view my own bias both positive and negative. I have been working on being more deliberate and definitive in my leadership focusing on vision. In this post I think you have given a great vision for how we can effect change and turn vision into action.

[Kelly Christopherson]

Thanks for the reminder. We often forget that we need to TELL people what we expect. Without this, people cannot know what it is they are to do. I'm often reminded of this when a new Educational Assistant begins a position. It doesn't take long before I find out if the person can or can't read minds since no one ever tells them of the expectations. Oh, they get the "handbook" but they are not told by a teacher what is expected in the room. They tend to have to figure this out by themselves. Thanks for the brochure and for reminding those of us who lead that we need to share what we expect if we want the same from those with whom we work.

[meg]

I think also administrators need to place high value on teachers defining self-expectations and then make sure the supports they need to meet them are in place.

And what's wrong with mustaches?