Principals at Chicago Public Schools may soon find out if they are making the grade according to the teachers working in their schools.þþA survey commissioned by the Chicago Teachers Union will be mailed to the 33,000 teachers and teacher aides in the union, asking them to express their level of agreement or disagreement on a variety of issues.þþFor instance: Does the principal have good communication skills? Does he or she allow staff to express opinion without fear of reprisal? Does the principal mentor and support new or struggling teachers and do they evaluate staff on a fair and objective basis?þþThe information will be useful to teachers considering a transfer to another school, said CTU President Deborah Lynch. Union officials learned from a previous study that teacher attrition is directly tied to principal performance.þþÿThe lack of administrative support is a key factor in attrition,ÿ Lynch said. ÿHaving [support] certainly makes a very challenging, exciting job so much better. We want to see where we have some trouble spots and perhaps provide a kind of follow-up that may be necessary to address some of those kinds of issues.ÿþþLynch and other union officials have not decided how they will disseminate the results. It's possible they may be available to union members only, or the public may be able to access the information through the Internet.þþSeveral years ago, the Milwaukee teachers union commissioned a similar survey and posted the results on the Web.þþClark Berry, president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, Called the survey ÿa very, very bad idea. ÿIt's going to be used and abused,ÿ she said. ÿIf indeed we were to post teacher evaluations on a Web site, [Lynch] would have a fit. Teacher evaluations are confidential.ÿþþShe added that although principals take classes on how to evaluate their staff, teachers are not trained to evaluate principals. Teachers also cannot understand all the tasks that principals are responsible for, Berry said.þþLynch said principals run the gamut from being supportive of their staff to being ÿthe most dictatorial principals that run teachers right out of their buildings.ÿþþÿA lot of it is their human relations skills that you can't see on a resume,ÿ she said.þþSome schools have become revolving doors for teachers, Lynch said, citing one school that has had 28 teachers leave in the last three years.þþBarbara Kent, in her second year as principal at Burley Elementary School in Lakeview, said she thinks the survey would be a good resource for principals. She hopes to use the results as a tool for self-reflection and improvement.þþShe does think posting the results on a Web site, however, would be unfair. ÿWould our evaluations of [teachers] be posted as well?ÿ she said. ÿIt wouldn't serve to build relationships if it were posted on the Web. I don't think it's community building.ÿþþ
Source: Chicago Tribune
