Interview Protocols

Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions for the Study of Emerging Teacher Evaluation Systems in the United States

Appendix II:

Teacher Focus Group

Protocol

Introduction

• Introduce the interviewer(s)

• Explain purpose of the study and topics to be covered in the interview

• Explain voluntary nature of participation, provisions for protecting respondents’ privacy and/or explanation of opportunity to review text.

Interviewers will read the following statement to interview respondents at the beginning of each interview:

No individuals or schools will be identified by name in any reports or other communications about the study. Districts will be identified in profiles of individual teacher evaluation systems, although key study findings will be reported in the aggregate. Case study data will be maintained in secure files and will be accessible only to members of the study team. Information that identifies individuals will not be released except as may be required by law.

• Advise participants that the focus group will last approximately 75 minutes.

• Invite questions from participants explain focus group ground rules. Participants are encouraged to:

• Respond to/discuss each question

• Respond to other participants, indicating, as appropriate, when they agree or disagree with what others have said

• Provide concrete examples explain or amplify individual comments

• Invite self introductions and information about years of experience in current teaching assignments and overall

Focus Group Questions

1. What is the primary goal(s) of the new teacher evaluation system?

• Improving instruction

• Identifying effective teachers

• Identifying ineffective teachers

• Improving student learning

• Other goal(s)

2. How does the teacher evaluation system consider student learning gains in assessing your performance?

3. Do you have any questions or concerns about this part of the process as it applies to your work as a (special education teacher, ELL teacher, high school English teacher etc.)?

4. How does the teacher evaluation system assess your instructional practices?

5. Do you have any questions or concerns about this part of the process as it applies to your work as a (special education teacher, ELL teacher, high school English teacher etc.)?

6. In what other areas does the system assess your performance?

7. Do you have questions or concerns about these assessments of your performance as a (special education teacher, ELL teacher, high school English teacher etc.)?

8. Did you receive feedback from classroom observations or other parts of the evaluation process? If so, when do you receive the feedback?

9. How do you receive it and to what extent is the feedback timely and useful?

10. What questions and concerns do you have about this part of the process?

11. What options do you have for appealing a rating of your performance?

12. What professional development and other kinds of assistance, if any, are readily available to help teachers address areas of concern that may be identified in the evaluation process?

13. How useful is the professional development and other assistance to teachers in your area?

14. How has your involvement in the teacher evaluation system affected your work as a teacher, if at all?

15. What changes, if any, have taken place in your school that are attributable to the teacher evaluation system?

16. Overall, do you consider the teacher evaluation system to be fair and helpful to teachers and to students? Why or why not?

17. Looking at your experiences, what changes in the teacher evaluation system would you suggest?

A-3