5D+ TEACHER EVALUATIONS IN SWARTZ CREEK: A FOUR FRAME ANALYSIS 1

5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning

Teacher Evaluations in Swartz Creek: A Four Frame Analysis

Oakland University
5D+ TEACHER EVALUATIONS IN SWARTZ CREEK: A FOUR FRAME ANALYSIS 2

Abstract

In the Swartz Creek Community School District, we have adopted the 5

Dimensions of Teaching and Learning for our teacher evaluation system starting

with the 2017 school year. The University of Washington Center for Educational

Leadership (CEL) 2002 believed that all students can achieve at high levels and the

achievement gap must be closed. This is year the 5 Dimensions originated and came

into our district.

The “5D+” program will be analyzed through the use of the four frames

described in the Bolman & Deal book, Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice and

Leadership (2013). The Bolman & Deal book was used to critique Swartz Creek

School District using the 5 Dimensions of Teaching & Learning (5D+).

5D+ TEACHER EVALUATIONS IN SWARTZ CREEK: A FOUR FRAME ANALYSIS 3

Introduction

The City of Swartz Creek is located in Genesee County. According to MI

School Data (2017-2018), Swartz Creek Community Schools serves 3,729 students

who on average, had a mean scale score of 488.4 for SAT ELA and 486.0 mean scale

score for SAT Math. In the district 78.6 % of our students are white, 8.72% African

America., 51.4% are economically disadvantaged and 12.9% with disabilities. With

the 2017 cohort (MI School Data 2017), we had an 87.67% graduation rate and a

5.67% dropout rate. In 2017, we were on the AP District Honor Roll.

In prior years, Swartz Creek Community Schools has been a district of top

excellence and a district that only serviced white students. With changes in the

economy and neighboring school districts, the culture and students we serviced has

changed. Many staff members and community members believe the school district

is going down due to the African-American students who came from our

neighboring school districts. With the hiring of our new Superintendent 20 months

ago, one initiative he implemented was the use of the 5D Instructional Teaching and

Learning model as our way to evaluate teachers.

The Instructional 5D instructional framework is a tool to help schools and

districts successfully implement high-quality instructional practices. It provides a

common language of instruction that defines teaching and learning along five

dimensions: purpose, student engagement, curriculum and pedagogy, assessment

for student learning and classroom environment and culture. It is used to evaluate

teachers by using the 5D+ Inquiry Cycle: 4-step growth process for engaging
5D+ TEACHER EVALUATIONS IN SWARTZ CREEK: A FOUR FRAME ANALYSIS 4

teachers and principals as co-learners around a teacher’s area of focus-self

assessment, determine a focus, implement and support, and analyze impact.

Swartz Creek Community Schools decided to adopt this model because they

believed that all students can achieve at high levels and the achievement gap must

be closed. This caused the school district to create a common mission statement to

go along with the change with the teacher evaluation. In Chapter 5 of Blankstein

(2013), page 91 Figure 5.1, it talks about having a common mission statement that is

clear. SCCS is a family committed to excellence, instilling the values of integrity and

compassion, and encouraging every individual to embrace challenges through

continuous learning.

Frame One: The Structural Frame

I am new to the district so I don’t know much back history. I do know that the

relationships at the high school between administrators and teachers were very

low. Throughout the district, the relationships between teachers and students were

very low. Even though we were a high performing district we could still use

improvements academically and with relationships. In my opinion, the district was

a professional bureaucracy, this structural model describes teachers in relation to

the rest of the organizations. (Bolman & Deal 2008 p. 79-80 Exhibit 4.4).

When the superintendent arrived, he made a few changes that he would be

more visible and out in the community and in the schools so students and staff

would see him. This was the first step in building relationships starting with the top
5D+ TEACHER EVALUATIONS IN SWARTZ CREEK: A FOUR FRAME ANALYSIS 5

and trickling down. The structure in Swartz Creek was completely broken but

needed some tweaking.

The districts main goal is to educate students. If that is not happening, we

must educate our teachers and give them the tools needed to be effective. Our

superintendent changed the teacher evaluation system the district was currently

using to the 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning. Bolman & Deal states,

organizations exist to achieve established goals and objectives (2013 p. 47) In our

district we have an issue, just like most of the country, with our achievement gap

between our students. As stated earlier, 51.4% of our students are economically

disadvantaged. The Center for Educational Leadership, at University of Washington

core beliefs are:

 With high-quality instruction, every student, regardless of race, class,

language, or disability, can succeed
 Instructional quality can only improve if leaders know what good teaching
looks like and act on that knowledge
 Every policy, practice, and structure in a district must support excellent
instruction
 Improving instruction should be a collaborative, system-wide endeavor

Our superintendent saw that the majority of our teachers were highly effective but

our graduation rate was in the low 80%. Our student grades and college rate didn’t

match with our highly effective teachers. When he decided to change to this

evaluation system he had a vision for implementing it. According to Bolman & Deal

(2008, p. 76-77), he used the simple structure hierarchy to implement this change.

This new initiative would be used by all teachers of records. The problem was only

about 25% of teachers were invited to the training. This caused problems this past
5D+ TEACHER EVALUATIONS IN SWARTZ CREEK: A FOUR FRAME ANALYSIS 6

year with implementing the 5D+ model. He gave a directive of how he wanted us to

dive into the 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning. In the 5D+ rubrics, teachers

have 30 indicators across 6 domains. Each teacher had to choose an indicator from

the areas of Student Engagement and Classroom Environment and Culture. At the

end of the 2017-2018 school year, it was discovered by the Superintendent that he

gave the teaching staff in Swartz Creek too big of a chunk to tackle with this new

initiative.

Teachers shall engage in a 4-step growth process with their observer and/or

evaluator, as co-learners around a teacher’s area of focus. This process begins with

the self-assessment, determine a focus (growth plans), implement and support

(observations & feedback), and formative feedback cycle.

According to Bolman and Deal (2008 p. 100, Exhibit 5.2), dual authority is an

alternative that creates a management level below the boss. Two individuals have

authority over specific areas. With this upcoming school year, the superintendent

and assistant superintendent decided to give the teachers two indicators to

concentrate on this school year.

The decisions superintendents make should be based on what helps them

meet their short and long-term goals to have a better functioning school district.

There is no way to know what problems will arise during a school year, especially

when you are new and making structural changes, but creating solid structures and

organizational flow charts will help elevate some of the future issues. By keeping

the structural frame in mind will help lower the chaos.

5D+ TEACHER EVALUATIONS IN SWARTZ CREEK: A FOUR FRAME ANALYSIS 7

Frame 2: The Human Resource Frame

Prior to the appointment of our current superintendent, teachers felt the HR

department was out to get them. In relation to the way teachers were evaluated.

Swartz Creek was using the Charlotte Danielson model to evaluate all staff

members. Especially teachers felt like administrators come in once a year and grade

them. How can a teacher be highly effective or unsatisfactory if you come in once a

year? What if my students were misbehaving that day or I was having a bad day?

With the change in the evaluation tool teachers feel a sense of district-level

employees are working with the staff in giving them more tools in their toolbox to

be successful.

At the human resources level, they take care of benefits, raises, health

insurance, and professional development for all members. We are in the business of

being a community of people who need each other to survive. The human resource

job is to make connections with all stakeholders: staff, parents, students, and

community members in order to take care of the children by giving them lifelong

skills academically and physically.

According to Bolman & Deal (2008, p. 113), “our most important asset is our

people. With the hiring of a new superintendent, changes were made throughout

the district starting with the human resources department. In order for change to

happen with teachers, they must see changes at the top. Maslow’s Hierarchy of

Needs is one of the oldest and most influential models (Bolman & Deal 2008, p. 120-

121) states people are motivated by a variety of wants and needs. Once their lower
5D+ TEACHER EVALUATIONS IN SWARTZ CREEK: A FOUR FRAME ANALYSIS 8

needs are fulfilled, individuals move up to social needs and so forth. One thing that

changed the morale of the district was giving teachers an increase in pay. This was

to say thank you for all of your hard work. With our new initiative of the 5D

Instructional Teaching and Learning teachers also receive a stipend at the end of

each semester for missing less than 3 days. Our superintendent has refocused the

district initiative to classroom instruction. If we equip teachers with the tools to be

effective then our students will be better and ready for the future. The human

resources frame is very important in making sure all parties are happy and

successful. Our superintendent has made it a point that changes will start at the top

and trickle down. He is leading by example. Since he expects all building

administrators and teachers to change he must model this change first. He has

openly communicated his common goal in regards to using the 5D Instructional

Teacher and Learning Model. Not only are teachers using this model, all

administrators are using the 4 Dimensions model. CEL (Center for Educational

Leadership) theory of action is strong, learning-focused leadership in central office

will boost the quality of instruction in the classroom and raise the educational bar

for every student.

Our Human Resource Department is using the sister program as I call it for

its evaluations. Since our teaching staff is using the 5D+ Instructional Model,

administrators at the Human Resource department and all Administrations are

using the 4 Dimension model. Our superintendent believes in leading by example. If

the initiative is good enough for the staff than all of our leaders should have the

same process.
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The following diagram is a model used by the CEL (Center for Educational

Leadership) 2002 to help with the central office transformation.

Frame 3: The Political Frame

Bolman & Deal 2013 reminds us that the political frame is the least embraced

and has more internal conflicts. Politics and power exist in many organizations and

we must find a way to coexist. The author suggests that leaders who take a political

view

 Set agendas

 Map the political terrain

 Network and build coalitions

 Bargain and negotiate

In Swartz Creek School District, there was a bargaining and negotiating going on

between the teacher’s union and the human resources department. There was an
5D+ TEACHER EVALUATIONS IN SWARTZ CREEK: A FOUR FRAME ANALYSIS 10

agreement from central office to say thank you for all of your hard work: with our

new initiative of the 5D Instructional Teaching and Learning teachers also receive a

stipend at the end of each semester for missing less than 3 days.

With all the political changes in the State of Michigan including: right to work

initiative being in effect, teacher layoffs due to budget cuts, and the change of the

tenure law, each school district was given only 4 recommended approved

observation tools for teachers. They are:

1. Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching

2. Marzano Teacher Evaluation Model

3. The Thoughtful Classroom

4. 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning

With a new superintendent in the district, a superintendent who has experience and

knowledge of the 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning this was the choice for our

district. Teachers had heard of the new change coming with the teacher evaluation

tool but had not experienced it in practice. Our superintendent and a group of

teacher leaders worked together to find a common way to implement the new

observation tool and work together to find what would work best in our school

district. In Reframing Organization by Bolman & Deal (2008 p. 216-219), Fisher and

Ury (Getting to Yes, 1981) uses “principled bargaining” built around four strategies

as a way to accomplish our goal of having a great observation tool that is not “out to

get” teachers but to give them tools to be successful.

Our superintendent has done an excellent job of transitioning from one

observation tool to another one. Instead of having teachers learning and using the 5
5D+ TEACHER EVALUATIONS IN SWARTZ CREEK: A FOUR FRAME ANALYSIS 11

Dimensions of Teaching and Learning, all administrators in the district are using the

same tool. The only difference is that the tool for administrators (central office

directors, principals, central office staff) is called the 4 Dimensions. By having all

staff in the district using the same model, it has taken a lot of the anxiety and

pressure of all staff members. This initiative is new from the top- down and all of us

are learning how to use the tool.

In Michigan, the law requires feedback to be provided within 30 days of each

observation. With the 5D+ tool, administrators are able to have that dialog

regarding what went wrong, what would you change/do differently and etc. through

a feedback cycle.

With this initiate, teachers were given training in May and in the summer

before the school year started. Every time our district has professional

development time, our superintendent and assistant superintendent goes over

information. During our first year of implementation, teachers only had to choose

three areas of focus out of the six domains. The superintendent chose two domains

for the staff: Student Engagement & Assessment to start with. This means the entire

district was focusing on the same areas. Once again, with the start of our second

year, teachers were given the two areas of focus: PCC1: Professional Collaboration &

CEC4: Classroom Environment. As a whole district, we are taking chunks and

working on the same focus areas to implement with fidelity.

In Chapter 10 of Blankstein (2013), page 208, focuses on three keywords for

long-term school success: leadership, capacity, and sustainability. These words

emphasize the importance of continually developing the human resources of the

5D+ TEACHER EVALUATIONS IN SWARTZ CREEK: A FOUR FRAME ANALYSIS 12

school community so that success lasts well beyond the initial implementation

phase of 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning. According to Bolman & Deal

(2008, p. 195), at every level in organizations, alliances form because members have

interest in common and believe they can do more together than apart. During the

bargaining and negotiations, our human resources department made sure that all

staff members had the adequate training and resources to implement our new

evaluation tool in the district. Every month during our professional development,

our superintendent went over tools and strategies and passed out resources for

each teacher to have. All of the resources passed out during the year enable all staff

members to have a binder of helpful tools. No teacher was left in the dark. They

knew what was expected every time an administrator came into their classrooms.

As we are going into year two, our administrators were given a refresher class along

with our staff member. Managers make rational decisions (optimal and consistent

with purpose), monitor to ensure that decisions are implemented and all

stakeholders have the same information.

Frame 4: The Symbolic Frame

Symbolically what the evaluation system means to each district is different

but in Swartz Creek, we are using it as a growth model to help teachers improve

with their delivery and instruction which will help our students to be more

successful in the classroom and in the real world.

5D+ TEACHER EVALUATIONS IN SWARTZ CREEK: A FOUR FRAME ANALYSIS 13

According to Bolman and Deal (2008 p. 250), the values that count are those

an organization lives, regardless of what it articulates in mission statements or

formal documents. By having a superintendent that had a concrete plan on how to

implement this new initiative, it created a partnership between teachers and

administrators which in turn created trust. With having a smaller school district,

only 7 schools, we could create a culture of learning across the district. All the staff

in the district using the same process, the same terminology in the classroom

creating our own rituals with the teacher evaluation system. Myths, vision, and

values bring cohesiveness, clarity, and direction in the presence of confusion and

mystery (Bolman & Deal 2008 p. 270)

An organization without a plan could mean disaster for any initiative trying

to get passed. It was important for our district to create a culture of common

language and open communication with this process. Institutional theory says

appearance to the public is the focus of importance. Perceptions are what matter

most, regardless of real effectiveness. (Bolman & Deal 2008 pp. 286-291). Culture

forms the superglue that bonds an organization, unites people, and helps an

enterprise to accomplish desired ends. By working collaboratively between the

administrators and teacher’s union, through story-telling, from our human

resources department, our people can know very clearly what the company believes

in and what needs to be done. (p. 254)

5D+ TEACHER EVALUATIONS IN SWARTZ CREEK: A FOUR FRAME ANALYSIS 14

Conclusion

Having this time to review the four frames while looking at Reframing

Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership, Bolman & Deal 2008, has pointed

out a key strength involving the structural frame. Our message is clear with our

current structure it meets the needs of all staff members with the intent of

increasing academic achievement. With collaboration, Bolman & Deal reminds us

that the political frame is the least embraced and more internal conflicts with.

Politics and power exist in many organizations and we must find a way to coexist.

Out of the four state-approved observation tools, the 5 Dimensions of Teaching and

Learning is much more powerful. It provides a roadmap and guidelines for teachers

and administrators. In Swartz Creek, we have invested in all four frames:

 Structural Frame- our superintendent and central office has done a great job

in creating a plan and a roadmap in making this change as smooth as possible

 Human Resources Frame- with the changes coming from the state of

Michigan, they invested in training for all staff to improve instructional

practices in the classrooms

 Political Frame- the teachers union and central office staff has worked

together in providing continuous training for all staff, everyone in the district

is using the same tool for their evaluation

 Symbolic Frame- all parties came together to make this an easy transition.

We have taken all of the training and made it into fun learning and giving

incentives to staff for embracing the changes.

5D+ TEACHER EVALUATIONS IN SWARTZ CREEK: A FOUR FRAME ANALYSIS 15

In our district, best practices in its evaluation process include the provision of

quality feedback to teachers and administrators throughout the school year. The

district is working on determining the most appropriate assessments for non-core

classes and applying rubrics to special education, counselors, and elective teachers

at the secondary level.

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References

Bolman, Lee G. & Deal Terrence E. (2008). Reframing organizations:  Artistry, Choice,

and Leadership, 5th ed.

Blankstein, A.M. (2013). Failure is not an option: 6 principles that advance student

achievement in highly effective schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press

University of Washington Center for Educational Leadership (2002). 5 Dimensions of

Teaching and Learning Instructional Framework

Dimensions of Teaching and Learning (5D) Instructional Framework & 5D+ Rubrics

for Instructional Growth and Teacher Evaluation adopted by Oakridge Public

School (2002)