Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Monica Bachtle
For this assignment I chose to interview Beth Svenby the Principal at Washington
Elementary located in Owatonna, Minnesota. During this interview Charlotte Danielson’s four
instruction were addressed. Beth has a consistent way of evaluating her staff and believes that
preparing her staff through pre-evaluation meetings and post-evaluation meetings helps her staff
When evaluating staff Beth uses the four domains of the Danielson model to observe and
ensure that teachers are performing and being held to high expectations. She evaluates teachers
using the first domain, planning and preparation, by looking for teachers’ knowledge of the
content, students, and resources. When considering the second domain, classroom environment,
Beth pays attention to the overall environment while also looking for specifics. She mentioned
the number one thing that she looks for is whether or not she feels that the environment promotes
high levels of learning through little distractions throughout the room and classroom
organization. While Beth pays close attention to the way the classroom looks physically she
explained that she also pays the majority of her attention to the relationship that the students and
the teacher share. She stated that the rapport between the students and teacher have a large
The third domain, professional responsibilities, is used to look at how well the teacher
presents themselves. Beth believes in strong parent-teacher communication and has high
expectations for professionalism from her teachers. Lastly, teachers are evaluated based on the
last domain, their instruction. When Beth evaluates teachers on this section she is specifically
looking for how engaged students are, the use of discussion and questioning techniques and how
When exploring the different evaluative models that Beth uses when evaluating her staff
she prefers to use action research. To conduct evaluations using action research Beth takes field
notes, distributes surveys and questionnaires, and observes individuals within the classroom or
groups. Beth believes that using action research is great in the field of education because there is
always room for improvement and for teachers to master their craft. She strongly believes that
action research offers teachers the opportunity for continued reflection well beyond their
evaluation. Along with action research evaluation Beth believes that peer evaluation is effective
for helping her staff grow and develop into stronger educators. By providing her staff with a pre-
visit preparatory meeting Beth helps ensure that her staff is aware of her expectations before
evaluating them. This also allows Beth to have an idea of what the teacher will be teaching that
day. Following the pre-evaluation meeting Beth then completes the formal in class evaluation.
Lastly, Beth and the teacher meet for a post-evaluation meeting to discuss strengths, and areas
for improvement.
Overall, I believe that Beth has an evaluating system that is effective and consistent. She
shared with me that keeping her evaluations the same for all staff helps her staff grow and learn
from the evaluations. She also shared the difficulties that come from having a post-evaluation
meeting with staff that may have not performed during their formal observation to the high
expectations that she set for them and explains during the pre-evaluation meetings. She
expressed that having difficult conversations is part of the evaluation process and that without
Beth explained that as a leader having the difficult conversations with staff after
evaluations that do not go as well helps keep the best interest of her students at the forefront and
in the end the critical feedback helps her staff grow. Showing consistent support to her staff and
INSTRUCTIONAL EVALUATION 4
providing them with the tools that they need to improve and grow are always her top priority. I
believe that Beth’s philosophy keeps the best interest of both staff and students a top priority and
helps create a culture in her school that enables to students to learn at high levels.