Supervision and evaluation of probationary teachers: Policies and practices in Class II and Class III Nebraska school districts

The purpose of this study was to identify policies and practices used to supervise and evaluate probationary teachers in Class II and Class III Nebraska school districts. A secondary purpose was to identify differences existing between policies and practices applicable to tenured and probationary teachers. Two samples were studied. The sample of the survey instrument study was 48 randomly selected principals who supervised and evaluated certificated employees of Class II and Class III school districts in Nebraska during the Spring Semester, 2006. The sample of the policy study was a set of 49 randomly selected Class II and Class III school districts. The randomly selected samples of school board policies were obtained from the Nebraska Department of Education in the Spring, 2006. All 48 principals responding to the survey said they evaluate probationary teachers at least one time per semester, which is the minimum requirement by law. According to principals, tenured teachers are observed and evaluated less frequently than probationary teachers. Only 85% of the principals surveyed said they discuss the evaluation system procedures yearly with their teachers, though 100% of policies state that this is to be done. Of the 48 principals responding to the survey, 83% said procedures used to evaluate probationary teachers and tenured teachers are the same. All 49 school board policies reviewed described the frequency of evaluations of a tenured teacher, though those frequencies varied from one time per semester to one time every three years. While 98% of the policies reviewed provided a description of the district plan for training evaluators, just over 41% of the principals responded that they had ever received formal training on how to use the evaluation system employed by their school