New Haven’s school principals have a “sense of empowerment and accountability” in general, and say that English-language-learning (ELL) and special education students still need more support.
Those are two findings from the most recent public schools survey of city principals and assistant principals. The New Haven school district released the results of the “NHPS Central Office Effectiveness Study” on Thursday.
The survey, part of the city’s ongoing school reform effort, is intended to gather principal feedback on the work of the Board of Education’s central office, the administrators who run the district. A total of 72 principals and assistant principals took the survey anonymously during the month of April. It’s the second year the district has done the study.
Click here to see a summary of the findings. Click here to see the complete results.
Garth Harries, the district’s school reform czar, Thursday offered his take on the new numbers.
Harries said one of the top signs of progress from the survey is the jump in principal satisfaction with both “empowerment and accountability.” That is, principals feel that they are responsible for student success and they feel that they are given the “flexibility” they need to get results, Harries said.
Among the several questions that track that area, survey results indicate a 15 – 27 percent increase in satisfaction, Harries said.
Principals also said they are happy with the teacher evaluation process, Harries said. Last year, only 22 percent of principals reported that the teacher evaluations were satisfactory. This year, it’s up to 68 percent, Harries said.
Other areas show improvement but still leave something to be desired. Principals continue to see special education and ELL as areas where more central office support is needed, Harries said. While satisfaction in those areas rose 15 percent among principals, it’s still only around 60 percent, he said.
Harries said there’s no easy answer to those problems. “These are hard, complicated issues where you’re balancing legal compliance mandates with institutional needs.”
Experiments in improving ELL and special ed are underway district wide, he said.
Another area that needs still more improvement is central office support of principal’s disciplinary procedures and behavior modification. Satisfaction is up from 34 percent last year, but tops out at only 51 percent, Harries said.
The survey results on how principals are spending their time show that duties like discipline and paperwork are preventing them from being in the classroom working with teachers. That, again, is a problem without an easy solution, Harries said. “The challenge is there are not enough hours in the day.”
Now that the numbers are in, they are being reviewed by the superintendent, the school board and central office administrators, Harries said. He said it’s too early yet to say what particular changes are likely to come from the survey. “The discussion here is to look at it to delve more deeply and to use it as a base for planning as we set priorities.”