Teachers' perceptions of the design and implementation of teacher evaluation systems in Tennessee public schools

Since there is no standardized instrument available to assess the design and implementation of teacher evaluation systems, the investigator developed a survey instrument to obtain the data. The questionnaire used with this study was a result of the review or the evaluation systems submitted to the Tennessee Commissioner of Education and a review of the literature pertaining to teacher evaluation. The instrument yielded information concerning teachers' perceptions of present practices and desired practices in the teacher evaluation process.

The Statistical Analysis System (S.A.S.) provided frequencies, cumulative frequencies, percents, and cumulative percents within their totals. The chi-square statistic was used to determine the significance of relationships among the variables. For the purpose of this study, a chi-square value significant at the O.M level or less was used.

As a result of the data collected and analyzed, the following findings were determined: teachers' perceptions of their school systems' most important purposes of teacher evaluation were (1) meet State Department requirements; (2) approval for tenure; and (3) accounting to authorities. Teachers' personal opinions of the purposes of teacher evaluation were (1) improvements of instruction; (2) increase job performance; and (3) provide feedback to teachers.

A majority of teachers responding believed that physical characteristics, personal characteristics, professional qualities, attitudes and values, professional training and experience, and self-evaluation were desirable characteristics of a teacher evaluation system. A majority of teachers responding also believed that input from parents, a record of critical events, and casual information from others, competency tests for teachers, and student test data were undesirable characteristics of a teacher evaluation system. A majority of teachers believed that school principals and supervisors should be the primary individuals involved with teachers in classroom observation, and pre- and post-conferences. A majority of teachers also believed that the use of instructional conferences as a part of a teacher evaluation system was very desirable.

A majority of teachers list 1.0 to 1.9 hours as the amount of time spent with them in the total evaluation process; however, a majority of teachers believed 2 to 5.9 hours should be spent with them in the total evaluation process. Teachers also believed that they were observed either one or two times during an evaluation year, but should be observed between one and four times.

A majority of teachers reported that (1) That could see and review their evaluation documents; (2) they could make written comments on disagreements concerning their evaluation; and (3) they were informed of the evaluation process. However, they also reported that: (1) They were not involved in the development of evaluation instruments; (2) they were not involved in the development of the evaluation process; and (3) they were not informed of the evaluation appeal process. A vast majority of teachers rated the over-all evaluation process in their school system as either fair or poor.