Perceptions of school personnel in the Memphis City School System concerning the teacher evaluation process

The initial step was to review the related literature. A questionnaire of 58 items under 6 clusters of ideas was designed to reflect the perceptions of selected school personnel: 12 superintendents, 34 instructional consultants (1-12), 24 principals (1-12), and 545 teachers (1-12) in the Memphis City Schools concerning what ought to be essential components of a teacher evaluation program.

Frequency and percentage distributions were tabulated for responses to all items by the respondents. A chi-square analysis was performed to determine if there were any statistical differences between the responses of administrators and teachers using a .05 level of significance.

It was concluded from this study that: (1) since there was such a high level of trust between the administrators and teachers in the Memphis City School System a committee of teachers and administrators should be formed to work out the total evaluation process, (2) the pre-observation conference, direct observation and the post-observation conference were an acceptable rationale for appraising teachers' performance and ought to be major components in the teacher evaluation process, (3) since there was disagreement between teachers and administrators as to frequency and length of observation, greater effort must be made to get congruence of opinion on classroom observation, and (4) the teachers and administrators have congruence on many items. These can be incorporated in the evaluation instrument immediately. Other items will need further negotiation between teachers and administrators.

The following recommendations were suggested as a result of this research study: (1) the school system should be very thorough in its study and seek expert knowledge in its development and installation of a revised teacher evaluation program, (2) there should be carefully defined procedures for rating teachers, determining weaknesses and strengths, and outlining the consequences of unsatisfactory ratings, (3) the need to include formal observation and formal conference procedures should be considered an essential component of the teacher appraisal system, (4) school systems should provide assistance to administrators and teachers to improve their skills related to the evaluation of teachers. Training should be made available to all school system personnel who are charged with the responsibility of evaluating teachers, (5) further investigations should be made into the aspects of teacher evaluation toward which the majority of the teachers and administrators were negative, and (6) finally, additional research is needed to determine the effects of goals, objectives, the supervisory process and appraising the performances of teachers on instructional improvement for students and teachers.