If Public School Leaders Care About Student and Teacher Success, Why Aren’t They Asking Them How to Help?

If Public School Leaders Care About Student and Teacher Success, Why Aren’t They Asking Them How to Help?

Robert Hultman 2019

Whether at a public school program with fewer than 175 students or at a multinational corporation, there are significant research-backed benefits to collecting and using feedback to inform long term goals and day to day practices.  That public schools are underperforming relative to our desires and even expectations and that they often struggle to allocate and use resources effectively are not controversial notions.  So why don’t our public schools, with hundred-million-dollar operating budgets, spending an average of $12-13 thousand per student, bother to ask students and teachers what they think?

I have been a teacher for a mere six years - short of half the average experience of classroom teachers - but in that brief experience, I have seen feedback collection and resulting action happen (or not happen) at both ends of the spectrum.  For full transparency: I am one of those idiots who would take less pay if it meant more job security, more effective professional development, and less money spent on tests and test preparation for students.  Others have their own reasons, but I say I’m an idiot only because if they spent money smarter, they could probably pay teachers more rather than less and less, and would see better outcomes for teachers and students (“they” referring to the school district, school leadership, and other stakeholders who primarily form these realities).

Early in my career I saw feedback work, and work well not only to inform the real decisions made at school that affected most, if not everyone, as well as make staff feel empowered to speak up, share ideas and get questions answered, and know that their values mattered somewhere beyond their own classroom.  Perhaps some of this was just that - a feeling that teachers mattered and their concerns would be heard.  But the benefit there is surely valuable as well, given what we know about the importance of autonomy at work and school.

I have seen borderline hostile environments where teachers felt like malcontents for asking questions or speaking up in meetings or even behind office doors, and the tacit understanding is that feedback is not welcome.  There are no surveys and if there are votes they are public. There are not collaborative meetings, only sit-and-gets, and if there are agendas, they are subject to administrative change, but certainly not teacher input.  Leadership may say they want to hear from staff more and that there is an open-door policy, but these “open doors” to teachers and others to vent do not result in any action or change, and many are left to wonder if their boldness will only make them stand out in a negatively perceived light.

I have also worked in buildings where feedback is taken, but not taken seriously.  Leadership may simply reject it as the expected complaining and grumbling you get from stressed out teachers, or find excuses to diminish or dismiss feedback after the fact because it runs counter to the status quo and the needs or comfort level of leadership.  In these buildings bosses acting as leaders often say things that sound like they are listening and that they value two-way communication, but the reality is not different than in buildings where educators are too busy or too disorganized to even pretend to care.  Young people suffering from learned helplessness at school can probably relate to such a reality.

No doubt the mountain of research is massive on schools that have effectively used feedback to produce incredible success and I have admittedly not looked into that research much, but as we all know, personal experience always means more to a person than any research, and these have been my experiences.  From what I do know combined with these experiences, I am confident that the mountain would support these ideas. I also know that there are efforts to look into feedback, with complicated schedules and tables based on audits and other data, questioning a central policy regarding feedback quantity, quality, and style versus a more tailored approach where teachers and students or both working together determine when, where, and how feedback is given and even acted upon.  This point begins to address the philosophy I would like to see as the goal in each classroom and school building. A philosophy that feedback is not a one-size-fits-all or just a wide net to be cast over a room of students (or worse a school filled with individual learners) at given interims or when performance pressure mounts, but a culture to be built and fostered throughout the school year like English Literacy teachers do with the writer’s workshop, where a systematic approach builds a foundation and regular efforts to engage in meaningful work in pairs, teams, and independently fosters a community of writers who do not just rely on the teacher.

There likely is not a right or wrong way to collect and act on feedback if there exists a genuine effort to do so constructively.  With tools like Surveymonkey and Google Forms that are easy and free to use, there are options for getting information from parents, students, teachers, and other stakeholders that are not as time-consuming as other methods.  If feedback is taken just as staff complaining, maybe the questions or the format needs changing. If the feedback is truly not helpful, ask that staff or respondents to surveys also include ideas or proposed solutions.  If the feedback is overly negative, work together to determine what people actually control so they can provide more effective feedback. If leadership doesn’t handle criticism well, develop a team or committee to help. If people feel like they are unheard, a simple survey that shows someone is trying to listen can make a huge difference.  We also should not limit solicitation of feedback to teachers or staff. The value in having a voice at school can empower students and create more opportunities for success academically and otherwise, not to mention the value in having parents who take an active role in the school.  This is purely anecdotal and my own opinion, but if I felt heard as a teacher, I don’t think I would be writing this post when I probably should be planning or calling parents.