Jonesboro Public Schools (JPS) has made steady efforts to increase instructional quality in recent years, but it must reform its human capital processes to address a rapidly changing student population and a flawed teacher evaluation process.
TNTP’s analysis shows that the district’s teachers view the evaluation process as perfunctory, despite efforts to develop JPS principals into true instructional leaders. Key findings include:
- JPS’s teacher evaluation system fails to differentiate instructional effectiveness and does not formally identify or address poor performance;
- The current evaluation process does not meaningfully support teachers to develop and improve their instructional practice;
- Though JPS has taken the necessary initial steps to increase school leadership capacity, principals need more training and support to become effective at teacher performance management; and
- A changing student population is challenging JPS to improve its recruitment practices and begin using personnel data in a focused, strategic manner to inform its human capital decisions.