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Performance Evaluation and Action Plan

Cassandra Young

Dr. Otstot

Grand Canyon University

October 20, 2021

Performance Evaluation and Action Plan

Preparing to meet with a department lead will allow you to see the whole picture of what

is happening inside the holding meetings. If there are teachers not at the same level as many

other teachers, we need to ask how to create an environment with the team lead to help

incorporate support for those teachers. Are there ways we can set up additional meetings or

support for a teacher not on the same level? These are the conversation starters with the team

lead, no matter grade level or content. It is good to start the conversation to remind the team lead

why we wanted them to be leaders and how seven total ELA teachers can support others in the

same position. 

Analyze the Case

Focusing on the high school setting, I want to ensure that I am prepared with all the data

to support my findings in front of me when meeting with the department chair. That way, they

can see the entire picture of the team. According to the case study, the team leads, “Mr. Wong,

has cited the teachers’ efforts to utilize the pacing guide, core program, and assessment results as

the primary reasons for their students’ positive outcomes” (GCU, 2021). If this is the case that

the team leads, then we need to have a different conversation since not all team members are on

the same page as he is. Many of the team members that Mr. Wong refers to are doing excellent

overall and are showing the data to prove that they are doing well, but somehow not all team

members fall into that category. The leader should ask, "How do we change that as a team

instead of isolating one team member?" There is a team member that needs more support. Per

observation and data analysis, they are not of the same caliber as other team members. Mr.

Blumenstock needs the help of his team members but even more, support to be engaged in the

collaborative atmosphere that is already occurring. 

Thinking of how the team lead should be supporting other team members leads one to

believe in how members work together to get expected results. Further, how do veteran teachers

support teachers struggling to get the same data results as the team? Team leads should be

tracking each team member’s data and making sure they are engaged in the collaboration of the

team members. If there is joint planning between

members, certain team members are working together for the seven ELA teachers to be on the

same page throughout their planning. If the team lead is unaware of how members in their

learning community are doing, more frequent check-ins are necessary. 

Since the responsibility of lesson material lies within the team, many stakeholders are

involved in planning in collaboration. Each teacher involved in the planning under the team lead

is part of the stakeholders involved in the occurring situation. The team leaders who support each

member of the collaborative team take an interest in the stakeholders’ community. I, as the

principal, am part of the "stakeholders" since I oversee the team lead and the school. Included in

part of the stakeholders would be the students in Mr. Blumenstock’s class since they are

struggling with reaching the goals that have been set. Focusing on the assessment, the district

coordinator would be a stakeholder since they focus on each teacher’s data and watch the

students’ progress in each classroom. 

Considering where we need to head next as a team, we need to create action steps that I,

as the principal, need to take along with the team lead to support the teachers. First, we need to

meet with the teacher to see between being behind in the pacing guide and not engaging in

content conversations. Another step would be to engage with the teacher without the team lead to

see if there was a conflict between them and other members of the content meeting. As a leader,

my question to myself would be about the team lead and being disconnected from team
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members, but then are they encouraging all members of the team or just the ones they know and

are friendly with. Another question to ask would be what training we can offer the team lead and

the staff member that is not on track with the other team members? Finally, how can we drive the

focus of our content team to be larger than just each room but part of the entire part community?

Identify the Larger Issues

An important point to consider is school or district policies that might affect my

decisions. In thinking of district policy of how teachers are affected by student achievement, this

teacher needs to get results like other teachers within the content team. 

Our district states that a coaching plan is set if teachers are not performing at an

"effective" level. It is based on student achievement and the framework of the school. If teachers

develop in many categories, they are put on a coaching plan to create more support and more

frequent check-ins. Once teachers have been put on this plan multiple times, they are looked at to

be moved within the building or let go since they are not making progress.

There is some additional information I would need to know as a part of the decision-

making process. Knowing our district policy, I would want to know what interventions the team

lead put to support this teacher. One question I would ask would include: "Have there been any

supports already put in place for supporting the teacher before I step in as the principal?" I need

to know the background of what has occurred before moving forward with the issue at hand. If

we have a teacher struggling to stay on pace with their team and cannot pull the data, there needs

to be a one-on-one meeting with the teacher and myself to figure out what we can do to change

that for the better.

There are both positive and negative outcomes of simply doing nothing in the situation. If

I do nothing besides meeting with the team leader, the results could stunt progress growth. A lot
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of success in this is based on the teacher having a meeting with the team lead and letting them

sort out what needs to be done and the level of collaboration they should see—thus, creating the

chance for a positive outcome to happen based on one meeting to express my thoughts and

understanding with the team lead, while encouraging them to take charge to increase the

relationship with the teacher. 

However, the flip side is doing nothing about the situation and the team leader not doing

anything about it. This could create a continued spiral downward for this teacher as well as the

student’s achievement level. This means there would be no growth within that class, and the

teacher’s observations would turn out terrible, with possible results being ineffective.

There are also possible positive and negative results of taking action in the situation., For

example, if I intervene with the team leader and the struggling teacher, we may see some adverse

effects among the team members. This could occur since the team would then see instead of the

team leader taking care of different situations, they need the principal to take over, which could

show or give the impression they are inadequate to do their job. 

However, it may take some heat from both the teacher and leadership since there could be

a conflict between them in the way of a positive, productive talk that needs to occur. Allowing

myself to step in and see the issues first lets me support them both more positively and

constructively instead of upsetting them. 

Create an Action Plan

Moving forward, I want to make sure that both the teacher and the team leader have a

healthy working relationship and help them improve in their positions. There will be training for

the team leader to make sure they are focused on all team members and watching where they

need to put more energy towards members who need more support. The teacher will also go
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through training about the importance of collaboration and working with a team lead to create

standard plans. As a result, they are staying on pace and aligned with the curriculum. According

to Piro, “team with your colleagues for ongoing, collaborative data chats, you will learn to

sustain your data-driven decision-making for accountability purposes” (Piro, 2016). To promote

these types of conversations, I would like to work with the team to create improved norms to

promote a better learning environment for all the teachers involved in the content meeting. The

entire process would include the critical stakeholders, the teacher, and the team leader. The

whole process would need to be based on the needs of each stakeholder.  We can achieve this by

first identifying the needs through conversations and observations.  Then we would ask each

stakeholder, the teacher, and the team leader, what their goals were in their current positions and

how they are looking to improve. 

As we are moving forward to create a better learning environment for all the teachers

involved in the collaboration process, I want to make sure that I keep the culture positive. That is

why we need to fix the flawed areas by training to create a positive working team. Once the

training is completed, it will allow the team to get back to trusting each other, learning from each

other’s strengths, and helping push high expectations in each classroom. Collaboration is our key

component and building the team back to its potential will allow the high expectations to come

back to the team arrangements. An anticipated challenge could be that neither the teacher nor the

team lead wants to participate in the growth areas. They could have pushed back on wanting to

work together to collaborate towards the common goals of the content meetings. The teacher

may feel pressured to conform to the team lead and myself instead of having individuality from

the content team. Both may also feel pressured to do to the district’s expectations instead of

supporting the district’s assessment coordinator.  We will need to establish trust between the
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administration, the teacher, and the lead. According to Datnow and Park, “Developing trust also

involved continually reminding teachers that data would be used to ask questions and chart plans

for improvement, rather than as a “gotcha, you’re doing a poor job” tactic” (Datnow & Park,

2015). 

Ongoing support for the team lead/department chair would come from continued one-on-

one meetings to see how the asset is going for the entire team. I would have to make sure they

were given a chance to observe other team leads in their department meetings to learn how the

norms are set and executed by other groups to create a more positive collaborative environment

for their content team. It would also be essential to develop a schedule of alternating teacher

observations to check in on all members of the ELA content team frequently. To evaluate the

team leader’s effectiveness, I would be looking at where the content team members are on

pacing, collaboration, culture, and effectiveness on common assessments. This would allow for

me to have ongoing conversations with the team leader on how to support his team better as a

whole. I would also be looking at the content team meetings to explore how they include the

underperforming teacher. 

To start, I would need to know the root of the issue at hand, this way, I can see where I

can support each member individually starting with observations of the teacher and team leader,

followed by having individual conversations with each to allow them to get all the information

out to a neutral party. Once I have a starting point and understanding of what is happening, I can

then have a sit-down meeting with both members to support them and create the professional

development areas they both need to focus on. Next, making sure both members are getting the

development they need, meeting individually with the team lead to help support the creation of

new norms for the team, and making sure this teacher is part of the team. Next team meeting, I
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would be sitting in as they worked on setting a new set of expectations and encouraging the

teacher to step in and collaborate with the team. Throughout this whole process, they ensure that

the teacher can build a relationship with the teachers, especially the team leader, after working

with both of them to build the relationship and make the changes in the meetings to promote the

collaboration doing frequent check-ins with both along with observations to see the performance

of each member. Finally, continue to do sessions with the team leader to help support the

changes needed and ensure the teacher follows through.

Reference

Datnow, A., & Park, V. (2015). 5 (Good) Ways to Talk About DATA. Educational Leadership,

73(3). https://web-p-ebscohost-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?

vid=2&sid=5529635e-9016-4d8f-9fed-

6a4ea4baa5d4%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=

111518973&db=ehh

GCU. (2021). Secondary Case Study. Grand Canyon University

Piro, J. (2016). 7 Step for a Collaborative Data Chat. New Teacher Advocate, 24(1). https://web-

p-ebscohost-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=fcd66fea-01f7-423c-

9d61-68e32c59fe4a

%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=117855633&d

b=ehh