Lauren Hermann

LTC 8750
Research Topic Proposal Abstract

Statement of Problem

Visual Arts educators have always been in the periphery of the accountability movement.
The No Child Left Behind Act attempted to level the playing field to give all students equal
access to education by focusing on student achievement and penalizing schools for failing to
show student growth. State educational agencies scrambled to shore up teacher evaluation
programs, most of which looked at student test scores as a means of effective teaching, in
response to a main goal of the law which necessitated every child to be taught by a highly
qualified teacher. As the NCLB gave way to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), teacher
evaluations again have come into play. While the law still requires a growth component, it allows
for a more holistic view of teacher effectiveness and for districts to build their own high quality
measures for teachers. Arts educators have found themselves in frustrating situations as they
try to conform to evaluation systems that require them to show growth in the same ways as
other disciplines. Additionally, these systems, often implemented by building principals with little
understanding of arts education and its importance, and which attempt to observe qualities of
effective teaching, are also a catalyst for educator growth through targeted feedback and
professional development. The purpose of this study is to investigate the preparation of current
building principals in their evaluation of arts educators and to uncover patterns with regards to
disparities in ratings and evaluative meetings. It has been with great difficulty trying to locate
literature that might illuminate this problem. The lack of literature in the field is another reason
why this topic is so important especially as evaluations may be tied to personnel and funding
decisions. The goal of this research is to confront the knowledge gap with regards to
evaluation of arts educators specifically and to consider how we might make changes to
principal preparation to ensure greater accuracy in and understanding of the evaluation process.

Research Questions

*How can current building principals be better prepared to evaluate arts educators?

*What changes might we see in targeted feedback and teacher satisfaction if building principals
are better prepared to evaluate arts educators?

Related Research

The theoretical framework underpinning this study is situated learning theory which originated
under Jean Lave. Situated learning theory proposes that learning is situated and occurs within
certain contexts, activities and cultures. Situated learning also explains that learning has a
social component where learners collaborate to build understandings and become a part of a
community of practice. Literature areas in this study include an understanding of current
evaluative practice in the state of Missouri, state guidance on principal evaluation training
specifically in non-tested subjects, evaluator accuracy, and guidance on art education teacher
effectiveness. Terms to be defined include educator effectiveness, targeted feedback,
evaluation, and professional development, evaluator accuracy.

Permissions and Protection of Human Rights

Gaining trust and maintaining confidentiality are of the utmost importance in this study. Both
building principals and arts educators will have to be willing to share current practices as well as
open up their evaluations to be analyzed. Evaluations are often times tied to personnel
decisions and in this light, as a researcher, one needs to be concerned with the effect this may
have on findings. Evaluations from the teacher perspective are personal and tied to confidence
in teaching, therefore, a positive outlook should be relayed to the research participants in an
effort to coach them through the process.

Data Sources:

Possible data sources may include: Teacher evaluations, observations of teacher evaluations,
principal and teacher surveys and interviews, current training modules for teacher evaluation
models, state reports and guidance to districts in teacher evaluation, art educator professional
development plans and SLO documentation

Methods and Data Analysis:

This study is a basic qualitative study. Qualitative research can best be defined by the belief
that people construct knowledge as they engage in activities and experiences through which
they make meaning. Merriam and Tisdale describe a “central characteristic of all qualitative
research is that individuals construct reality in interaction with their social worlds” (Merriam &
Tisdale, 2016 p.24). In the case of this qualitative study, I am interested in how both arts
educators and building principals interpret their experiences with evaluations, how they
construct their knowledge and the meaning that they attribute to these experiences. Semi
structured interviews, observations and review of evaluation artifacts and documentation will be
reviewed. Respondents would be in one of two groupings; arts educators and building
principals. The sampling strategy will be a maximum variation or heterogeneous sample.
Because arts educators teach in all levels K-12 and there are great differentials between
buildings elementary through high school, it is important to understand this phenomena from
many different levels and perspectives. The analysis of the data through emergent coding will
result in identifying patterns which may be recurring, and in characterization.

Time Line:

The research study will focus on a short term timeframe. I will first interview both arts educators
and building administrators in a semi-structured approach. I would like to follow up with each
principal/teacher pair over the course of two to three evaluations. This most likely would take
around 6-8 months depending on the school district and its current evaluation policy.
Discussion and Possible Findings:
This research will be an attempt to fill a gap in the literature on building principals abilities to
effectively and accurately evaluate arts educators. There is a great possibility that through better
understanding evaluation processes, there can be an effort made to target professional
development to building administrators to more effectively work with their visual arts educators
and develop cycles of feedback that are beneficial and lead to purposeful professional
development for the teacher and a better picture of what effective art teaching looks like.