A study of elementary teachers' and elementary principals' perception of two different types of school psychologists' written reports

The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary principals' and teachers' perceptions of two types of school psychologists' report writing.

Data was collected by questionnaires, sent along with the two reports, to 14 principals and 9l teachers from five Tennessee counties. It had been hypothesized that: (1) principals' and teachers' perceptions of the usefulness of the school psychologists' report would not differ due to the different content of the two reports; (2) principals' and teachers' perceptions of the informativeness of the school psychologists' report would not differ due to the different content of the two reports, (3) principals' and teachers' preference of the school psychologists' report would not differ due to the type of report written, and (4) principals' and teachers' perceptions of the usefulness of the school psychologists' report would not differ due to practical considerations such as parent conferences or seeking solutions to the referral problem.

Data was analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance and a one-sample chi-square test, at the .0s level of significance. Results indicate that no significant differences were found involving the usefulness and informativeness of the two types of reports. However, the teachers clearly preferred the direct assessment, while the principals preferred the traditional assessment. Further research in this area is recommended.