Opportunities Lost: First-Year Teachers’ Perceptions of Evaluation and How It Influences Their Instruction

ABSTRACT

This mixed-methods study examined 55 first-year teachers’ (FYTs) experiences with teacher evaluation and their perceived influence of evaluation on their teaching. Analyses revealed that FYTs who experienced higher-quality feedback within their teacher evaluation system reported different experiences and emphases than their peers who received lower-level feedback. These FYTs reported more consistency between the classroom practices they perceived as important and those emphasized in the teacher evaluation system, whereas their peers reported a significantly higher emphasis on student scores on standardized tests. We characterize the experiences of FYTs who did not receive high-quality feedback as lost opportunities to support their development.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. University of Virginia IRB # 2191.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Science Foundation [DGE 1535024]; Spencer Foundation [201600103].