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While policy makers have attempted to standardize teacher evaluation, policy is implemented and enacted by school administrators. This study addresses the following question: Considering the legislative efforts to remove control of evaluation from local figures, do teachers perceive school principals as influencing the implementation of state-level evaluation policy and, if so, in what ways? I examined interviews from 14 teachers across four high schools within a district in North Carolina derived from a larger mixed method case study of teacher perceptions of evaluation policy and classroom practice. The results suggest a state-centralized teacher evaluation policy, such as the one utilized at the time of this study, can look vastly different to teachers at the school-level due to principal enactment of the policy. Furthermore, the data suggest the following themes influenced policy implementation: the capacity of principals to evaluate in a timely manner, what a principal chooses to value in a policy, and the perceived effectiveness of a principal as an evaluator of teaching. By taking a closer look at what is happening “on the ground” between teachers and principals in four schools utilizing the same state-level evaluation policy, the lessons learned in this study can help inform future policies.

The summer after Amanda S. Frasier left K-12 teaching to return to high education, she received an email stating that her students’ end-of-year assessments were in. When she looked at the scores, she was pleased to see they had done so well, even though she questions the value of standardized accountability measures and didn’t learn anything new from the results. Frasier discusses why these scores are not helpful and advocates more meaningful measures.

The purpose of this study is to determine if teachers perceive evaluation as providing the motivation and feedback to change classroom practices in a context where teacher evaluation carries varied stakes for tenured versus untenured teachers. This mixed methods case study of four high schools in a single district in North Carolina uses survey and interview data collected from teachers in the 2016–2017 school year to explore teacher perceptions and examine differences between career (tenured) and probationary (untenured) teachers. A conceptual framework is developed utilizing research on how teachers changed practice based on other accountability initiatives. The overall sample of teachers did not perceive the evaluation policy to be high stakes or impacting their practice; however, there were statistically significant differences between the perceptions of tenured teachers and untenured teachers on the survey. Interview statements supported the quantitative findings. The results highlight a need for a better understanding of how evaluation policies may influence teacher practice, particularly among those who have limited career protections, including beginning teachers who lack tenure.