Five of my Columbia County summer school peers completed the self-assessment instrument. I chose teachers from different content areas, teaching experiences, and both sexes. I also chose two other teachers who, like myself, began their teaching career in the middle school setting and then moved up to the high school level. The three other teachers had previous experience, one from an elementary school. My goal for this assignment was to see if any of these differences had an effect on the perceptions of our school.
In Organization Climate, my peers and I generally agreed on the quality of our school. One difference was the statement, “There is emphasis on academics within this school.” The answers ranged from 5 to 6 (strongly agree). This variation may result because our school is known as an athletic powerhouse in our county, as proven by another recent state baseball championship. Perhaps some teachers feel that more emphasis is placed on athletics rather than pure academics at Greenbrier. However, we all agree that our school emphasizes academics in the long run.
In Processes, I was somewhat surprised by the responses to the statement “The school asks teachers what improvements are needed to achieve quality in the schools.” The responses to this varied greatly, with some teachers agreeing strongly with this statement while others scored it a 2 or a 3. This discrepancy perhaps depends on whether the teacher surveyed had ever been asked about increasing our school’s quality. In many ways, the administration at our school follows a “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” mentality. The same teachers always sit on committees, such as the Principal’s Advisory Council, and are asked how to better our school at their monthly Pack Meetings. These teachers are all department heads who exhibit excellence in the classroom, and are generally veteran teachers. I believe that some younger teachers feel that their opinions do not matter quite as much to the administration. Unfortunately, our school had a high turnover of teachers each year. Last year saw 36 new teachers, and the upcoming school year will probably yield similar results. Many newly hired teachers are hired not only to teach, but to coach as well. These teachers have amazing new ideas, but perhaps they are too overwhelmed with their first year duties to speak up.
Statement 8 under Processes, “The principal visits teachers’ classrooms on a regular basis…” received low marks from each respondent. Though this is not an area of great concern among those surveyed, I do feel this is an area that should be addressed at Greenbrier since the principal is generally regarded as unapproachable. Our school is the largest high school in the county, with over 2500 students, 105 teachers, and only 5 administrators. Because of this, our administrators are overworked, as is the principal. Though a more valiant effort was made this year for our principal to appear more approachable, this continues to be an area where our organization seems to be lacking.
Management Practices seems to be the category with the most differences. I think this may result if the teacher had taught anywhere other than Greenbrier High School. I think that teachers who have been at other schools see how much more efficient Greenbrier is and how much more our administration want to better our school, while teachers who have only taught at Greenbrier have little comparison. The statements with the widest range of responses were:
4. The school calls teachers together to help set system goals and objectives.
5. The school calls teachers together to identify obstacles.
8. The systems conduct workshops to assist teachers in promoting quality instruction.
Statement 4 was of particular interest to me. It seems that teachers in certain content areas scored this statement much higher than teachers in other areas, and some departments are not getting as much training as other departments. For example, the Science Department at Greenbrier has always been well known as a very cohesive group of teachers. Departmentally, there is little teacher turnover and most are friends outside of the classroom as well. A successful organization must always be training its employees and seeking to make itself better, and not leave the Science Department alone even if they appear to currently be functioning well together.
In Outcomes, Statement 8 dealt with rewarding quality work. There was disagreement among my peers and myself on this statement. I feel that our school does reward quality work by students and by teachers. We have teacher of the quarter awards for teachers and students who go out of their way to be helpful. Two teachers scored this much lower than I did.
In summary, it seems there is high satisfaction among those surveyed, and all generally enjoyed teaching at Greenbrier High School. The factors that I believe need improvement are:
1. Encouraging all teachers to voice their opinions.
2. Rewarding teachers for quality instruction.
3. Administrators should try harder to observe teachers regularly and to look for quality instructional strategies, especially in the inclusive classrooms, of which Greenbrier has many.