Like many school principals, Brian Jones has dealt with
underperformance from his teaching staff at some point. As the principal at
Guilford Elementary/Middle School Pre-k-8
th grade in Baltimore,
Maryland he collaborated with stakeholders to define the school’s goal and
facilitate continuous improvement in all areas.
Principal Brian Jones also provided evaluative
feedback for twenty-nine instructional staff.
"I have transformed a low-performing school into a school
that fosters high expectations for both teachers and students,' he added.
So, how can you help under-performing teachers?
Provide honest feedback
Providing an accurate assessment of the teacher's capabilities
is important. Providing this feedback requires you to be specific and focus on
the main issues. This also applies when you want to point out conduct issues as
well.
Focus on particular areas
Thanks to the specific feedback you provided, the teacher has an
area of improvement to focus on. But what if you identified numerous sectors
that require intervention?
In such instances, you don't want to overwhelm the teacher and
impede progress. While you ought to point out all the areas, you can make
things more manageable by focusing on a few areas that would bring significant
change quickly. If there's a lot to handle, take a few steps at a time to build
confidence. If they are struggling to keep up, you don't want to overload them.
Visualize success
You need to agree on what constitutes success. Numbers are good
because they are objective, but not everything can be measured numerically. You
are encouraged to discuss what will signify the accomplishment of individual
goals; a picture of success, if you will. The clearer this picture is the
better the chances of the teacher achieving them.
Provide support
It sounds easy, but can be implemented poorly in reality. As
Principal Brian Jones knows, you have to work in close collaboration with the
teacher to understand the kind of support they require. Just like students,
teachers have their preferred ways of knowing things.
