Evaluating Teacher Performance with Improved Rating Scales

Abstract

Evaluation of teacher performance and student learning is not an easy task. However, regulations, administrative directives, and-in several states-statutes require that teachers be evaluated. It is almost universally assumed that performance itself is important, no matter what the difficulty in relating it to learning outcomes, although it certainly can be inferred that humane, democratic, creative teaching leads to better results with students. Principal in Difficult SpotThe principal finds himself in a difficult position. He is required to perform the conflicting functions of helping his teachers teach and evaluating that teaching. Blumberg (1974) calls the resultant situation &dquo;a private cold war.&dquo; It is this &dquo;war&dquo; that has been the focus of research by an Iowa State University team for five years. Investigators have sought to develop an improved rating scale for use in evaluation.Because evaluation is at the very least a political and social requirement and at best a tool for improvement of instruction, an evaluation system should be as objective as possible. In addition, this objectivity and due process in performance evaluation require that the evaluation items used in performance rating scales be valid, observable, reliable, and discriminating. Item validity was sought via a jury of experts composed of teachers, administrators, and school board members from a large midwestern at DALHOUSIE UNIV on June 22, 2015 bul.sagepub.com Downloaded from

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