The leadership staff did quite a few things well in this situation. Ms. Phillips had confidence in Mr. Hathaway and allowed him the opportunity to “take on new challenge” and teach algebra. (Par 5) Ms. Phillips made a fair decision when she “met with the school's three assistant principals and explained that responsibility for observing and evaluating all of West Boulevard's teachers will be divided among them.” (Par 3)
Mr. Bell failed to go beyond his responsibilities and discuss the lesson directly after it happened. Maybe Mr. Hathaway could have justified some of the things that happened during his observation that could have affected his scores. Mr. Bell could have spoken with Ms. Phillips to inform her that this was out of the ordinary for Mr. Hathaway and they could have worked as a team to better assist Mr. Hathaway with his classroom management and teaching strategies. Mr. Bell and Ms. Phillips could have been a little more understanding and supportive, as this position was very new to Mr. Hathaway.
“High turnover of teachers due to community and parental complaints regarding the consistently low standardized test scores of many students” seemed to be the biggest concern. (Par 2) Consistently low standardized test scores shows literally everyone how well you as a teacher, and as a school, are performing. If a school’s scores are low, this most certainly would cause concern with the public and the community as to what the students are being taught, why the students aren’t excelling, and could lead to unfavorable thoughts and feelings towards the teachers at West Boulevard Middle School. Another concern would be teacher turnover rate. Having good quality teachers stay in their position for long periods of time is beneficial to the make-up and outcome of the environment of the school and classrooms, and the school comes together as a community. Lastly, another area of concern might be the feelings that some teachers have towards the administration. If teachers have toxic relationships with their principals, that is going to create a breakdown of teachers, their classroom, and perhaps even unfair decisions and outcomes based on everything they are having to deal with.
As stated, “The school has experienced high turnover of teachers due to community and parental complaints regarding the