A COMPARISON OF THE PERCEPTIONS OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS REGARDING THE RELEVANCE AND FEASIBILITY OF THE CRITERIA USED TO EVALUATE TEACHERS
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of teachers and principals on the secondary level regarding the relevance and feasibility of criteria generally used to evaluate teacher performance and effectiveness. Relevance refers to how well a criterion reflects the behaviors associated with effective teacher performance. Feasibility refers to whether or not it is possible to measure a criterion well enough to justify its use in evaluation. Questionnaires containing thirty frequently used teacher evaluation criteria were sent to fifty randomly selected secondary schools in the state of Tennessee. Teachers and principals were asked to rate each criterion for its relevance and feasibility. Mean ratings and other statistics were computed from the 609 teacher questionnaires and sixty principal questionnaires received from thirty-two of the fifty schools. The thirty criteria were also subgrouped into three types of criteria for further analysis. Presage criteria refer to behaviors the teacher brings to the classroom, such as personal characteristics, and are not necessarily related to the goals of education. Process criteria refer to aspects of teacher and student behavior and/or their interaction, i.e. what goes on in the classroom. Product criteria refer to measures of growth in student behavior as a result of teacher influence. Teachers and principals found the criteria to be both relevant and feasible for use in evaluating teachers, but significant differences existed in their perceptions. Principals found the criteria to be more relevant than did teachers. Principals also found the criteria more feasible than did teachers. Separately measured, both teachers and principals found the criteria to be more relevant than feasible for use in teacher evaluation. Differences were also revealed when the criteria were subgrouped into presage, process, and product criteria. Both teachers and principals found process criteria to be the most relevant and presage criteria the most feasible. Product criteria were considered the least relevant and least feasible by both groups. Although the subgroups were ranked the same by both teachers and principals, the differences in the mean ratings were significant for both relevance and feasibility.
Subject Area
School administration
Recommended Citation
SUSAN ELIZABETH SIMMS,
"A COMPARISON OF THE PERCEPTIONS OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS REGARDING THE RELEVANCE AND FEASIBILITY OF THE CRITERIA USED TO EVALUATE TEACHERS"
(1985).
ETD Collection for Tennessee State University.
Paper AAI8802604.
https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/dissertations/AAI8802604