Donald M. Medley

The Accuracy of Principals' Judgments of Teacher Performance

AbstractThis is a study of the accuracy of principals’ judgments of teacher performance as predictors of teacher effectiveness. For each of 46 elementary school principals, correlations were obtained between judgments of effectiveness of teachers in three roles and gains of students in their classes in arithmetic and reading. The mean accuracy of judgments of teacher effectiveness in helping students acquire fundamental knowledge was .20, and there were no significant differences in the accuracy of judgments made by different principals. There was evidence the judgments of teachers of grades 3 and 5 were more accurate than judgments of teachers of grades 2, 4, and 6. Possible explanations of the low accuracy of the judgments are discussed.

Assessing Teacher Performance from Observed Competency Indicators Defined by Classroom Teachers.

AbstractThis study was concerned with the measurement of a set of indicators of teacher competence, defined by the teachers themselves as observable in their classroom behavior. The question it sought to answer was whether scoring keys for existing low-inference observation schedules could be developed that would measure any or all of these indicators objectively and reliably. Multiple observations were made with four such instruments in 100 classrooms in a single rural school system to provide data relevant to the question. Forty-two scoring keys were developed to measure one or another of 26 indicators identified by the teachers and used to score the records made in the 100 classrooms. An analysis of variance was made of the scores on each key to estimate its reliability and to isolate and assess errors of measurement due to lack of internal consistency and to instability confounded with observer disagreement. It was concluded that keys could be constructed to yield stable and consistent measures of mos...

Construct Validity of a Simulation of Interactive Decision Making.

Abstract This article presents preliminary evidence in support of the construct validity for two versions of the Simulation of Interactive Decision Making. Both versions have been developed as group tests of interactive teaching competencies to simulate the decision-making process in the classroom more realistically than traditionally used pencil-and-paper tests. Both tests simulate the limited time allowed for making decisions in the classroom by projecting written descriptions of typical classroom situations that teachers may face in the classroom. The test specifications for each version were developed using a group of indicators of successful teaching specified by the Virginia Beginning Teacher Assistance Program (BTAP), and each situation was approved by a panel of experts that included teachers, administrators, and college faculty. Evidence of construct validity was gathered as the results of each test reflected differences among subjects with various amounts of training and experience.

Making and Implementing Policy on Teacher Licensure

The authors describe one states efforts to formulate and implement policy with regard to the licensure (or certification) of its public school teachers. They dis cuss conditions that led to the develop ment of certification policy, the rather unique evaluation system that was de veloped to assess teacher competence, and the assistance provided by the state to those teachers who fail to demon strate the competencies required for cer tification. Consideration is also given to factors that will eventually determine the success or failure of this policy and similar policies in other states.

Analysis-of-Variance Models and their use in a Three-Way Design without Replication

THE TECHNIQUE of analysis of variance has enjoyed rapidly increasing popularity in the treat ment of data collected in educational experiments and surveys. Although the interpretation of the results of such analyses is closely dependent o n the assumption made about the model underlying the use of the technique, most textbooks have offered little or no guidance about the choice of models or their relationship to the conclusions to be drawn. As a result, some of the potential ities of the analysis of variance are not being realized, and the technique has on occasion been misused. It is the purpose of this paper to at tempt to state and illustrate as simply as possi ble the implications of the use of each of thr e e elementary analysis-of-variance models, using data gathered in a series of observ a t i o n s of classroom teachers. In the belief that the verbal behavior o f a teacher is a valid measure of the social emotional climate of her classroom, Withall (9) developed a technique for classifying statements made by a teacher during a typical class period into seven categories. Using this technique, Mitzel and Rabinowitz (6) made two series of four visits each to each of four classroom teachers at intervals of about one week and made tal 1 i e s of each teachers remarks independently until approximately 100 had been reported. The pro portion of statements which fell into the learner centered category, when transformed to an an gle by the arc sine transformation (4), is known as the Climate Index. The 32 values of this In dex obtained by the two observers on four visits to the four teachers are shown in Table I. These are the data that will be used for illustrative pur poses in the discussion to follow.

A Comparison of Analysis of Covariance to Within-Class Regression in the Analysis of Non-Equivalent Groups.

Comparing non-equivalent groups is a persistent problem in educational research methodology, especially teacher effectiveness research. Within-class regression is a method, developed in this paper, of comparing a large number of non-equivalent groups. Monte Carlo data were generated under several conditions and within-class regression. The results indicated that the within-class regression method was a less biased method of data analysis. Reading achievement data were also analyzed using both methods. The results indicated that the method of analysis makes a difference in analyzing treatment effects. It was concluded that, when a large number of non-equivalent groups are compared, within-class regression will yield more accurate estimates of treatment effects than analysis of covariance.

The Language of Teacher Behavior: Communicating the Results of Structured Observations to Teachers.

a failure of the supervisor to perform his crucial function of feeding back to the teacher accurate and comprehensive information about his teaching behavior. The recent rapid developments in closedcircuit television equipment have been hailed by some as promising to solve this problem. If video and audio recordings of a teacher could be made while he teaches and played back to him afterward, the feedback loop would be complete, and the supervisor could devote his entire energy to transmitting to the teacher whatever wisdom he possesse~ that is relevant to the behavior he and the teacher are both observing. The experiment reported here was carried out in a campus elementary school in which a number of classrooms were linked to the education department of the college by a closed-circuit television sys-

An Outcomes-Based Teacher Preparation Program

As members of higher education faculties, society sees us as being in the knowledge business. The role of higher education is to develop research based knowledge and transmit it to students. Many of our critics across the campus, the state, and the country deny that teacher educators perform either role. They deny that there is any research based knowledge relevant to the practice of teaching. They assert instead that professors of education function as master teachers who pass on the accumulated folklore of teaching to apprentices—a function schools can do better than the institution of higher education can.