There is substantial research on how people (mostly teachers) make sense of school policies (Coburn, 2005; Cohen & Hill, 2001; Levinson et. al, 2009; 2001; Spillane, Reiser, & Reimer, 2002). There is substantial research on how principals understanding of policies impact how these policies play out in his or her respective school (Coburn, 2005; Russell & Bray, 2013; Spillane, 2000). Additional research examines how principals evaluate teachers, including the validity of such evaluations and why principals evaluate teachers in certain ways (Harris, et. al, 2013; Jacob & Lefgren, 2008; Nelson & Sassi, 2000; Nelson, Sassi, & Driscoll, 1999; Nelson, Sassi, & Grant, 2001). However, there is limited (and perhaps no) research focusing on principals sense-making of teacher evaluation policies and how this might impact teacher evaluations. Almost all other research speaks to principals past experience as an indicator of how they observe teachers, but rarely is anything mentioned regarding how principals understand and interpret teacher evaluation policies and how this may impact how they conduct teacher evaluations.

This topic is of particular interest in Michigan as so much is currently changing and/or scheduled to change regarding teacher evaluation policies. This project is important because he majority of a teacher’s evaluation is up to principal (via observation), which means what they deem important will impact teacher firing, promotions, evaluation scores and possible pay (Harris, et. al, 2013).