Relationships between administrator emphasis on staff evaluation processes and secondary school effectiveness in Washington State

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between administrator emphasis on staff evaluation processes and the overall effectiveness ratings of a sample of Washington State senior high schools. The project defined administrative emphasis on staff evaluation (the major independent variable) as being composed of variables which were believed to be indicative of the quality of the staff evaluation process. These are administrator time on evaluation processes, the administrator's setting of personal goals for evaluation skill improvement, and his/her identification of marginal teachers. Four additional independent variables (average amount of time spent on instruction, administrator attendance at evaluation inservices, and classification variables related to teacher education and length of service in one building) were identified as being of interest in this study.The dependent variable, the effectiveness score of the school, was defined as a composite of standard scores on ten component variables (student achievement, instructional quality, academic emphasis, teacher expectations, fairness of discipline, student attendance, teacher interest in students, amount of homework, student drop-out rate, and teacher absenteeism). These component variables were weighted on the basis of judgments by an expert panel, the achievement component adjusted for an SES factor, and an effectiveness score calculated for each school. The data for this study were acquired in the Washington State sample of the 1980 High School and Beyond Study. Data were analyzed to answer a set of six research questions. Pearson product moment correlations and multiple regression analysis were used to test all hypotheses concerning the relationships. The results indicated that the hypothesized relationships between emphases on teacher evaluation and school effectiveness did not exist under the conditions studied. The author provides reasonable explanations of the results and makes pertinent suggestions for further research.