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Show By ROSELYN KIRK A program based on a "positive view of people" where students, teachers, parents and administrators evaluate each other and participate in the decisionmaking decision-making process has been initiated in seven schools in Davis County School District. LYNN STODDARD, principal at Whitesides Elementary School in Layton, explained that the Catalyst Program gives participants a voice in the decisionmaking decision-making process, rather than relying on authoritarian or permissive types of control. con-trol. He said the program is based on the supposition that group solutions are better bet-ter than individual answers. As a result, the process asks students, teachers and parents those who are affected by rules and decisions to "have a voice in their formulation." . AS A RESULT, the students are asked to appraise their teachers and the teachers to appraise the principal. Parents are asked to respond on a scale to programs in the school and "become involved in-volved as full partners on the child growth team' Mr. Stoddard said. Even kindergarten students can be a part of the evaluation process since students need only mark faces ranging from smiling to frowning faces indicating their approval or disapproval of teachers and programs. IF THE teacher and principal choose to participate, children mark faces for such questions as: Do you like school? Does your teacher like to teach? Does your principal like being principal? Do you get along with other pupils? Do your parents feel the school is doing a good job? According to Mr. Stoddard, "Freedom of choice is essential for everyone in all aspects of the Catalyst Process." Dr. Dallas Workman, Davis School District Elementary Curriculum director, said principals in the individual schools decided whether they would participate in the program. TEN PRINCIPALS from Weber, Davis, Salt Lake and Tooele Districts met in the original Catalyst Project and continue con-tinue to share evaluations and to work across district lines in evaluating how the program is progressing in each school district. Mr. Stoddard was a part of this original group which began to work with elementary schools. The program is now getting started in secondary schools in other districts, be said. "It's risky to open yourself up to an evaluation by teachers, students, and parents," he said. 'There were things about me that I wasn't aware of. At first teachers inflate the appraisal and then they start to open up." Teachers can .choose to leave their names on the principal prin-cipal evaluation sheet or turn in the sheets without their names. ACCORDING TO Mr. Stoddard, parents seemed to approve of the get-acquainted I conferences that were held at Whitesides Elementary School in place of "Back to School" night. Parents were asked these questions: What would you like the school to do for your child? What can you tell us about your child that will help us to meet these goals? How can we work together? These questions were sent out to parents prior to the conference with the teacher. Ninety-sue percent of the parents at Whitesides School said they approved of this approach, Mr. Stoddard said. DR. WORKMAN said the Catalyst Program is aimed at helping principals and teachers participate and work out management problems such as better behavior in the lunchroom or a similar problem. He said the elementary schools participating in the program "get into it in varying degrees." In some cases the teachers haven't used the "faces" evaluating technique. The program just makes the tools available to them, he said. Mr. Stoddard said the system is based on the belief that "we have the wherewithal to define and solve our own problems." The process leads to creation of democratic environment in which principal growth facilitates teacher growth which in turn facilitates pupil growth." |