This paper presents new evidence that explores the strengths, weaknesses and overall quality of school inspection practice in China. In one city region of Shandong Province, the research examines stakeholder perceptions of inspection purposes, processes and outcomes, as well as the potential to improve inspection practice and compulsory education…

Student evaluation of teaching is a multipurpose tool that aims to improve and assure educational quality. Improved teaching and student learning are central to educational enhancement. However, use of evaluation data for these purposes is less robust than expected. This paper explores how students and teachers perceive how different student…

This paper reports the main findings of a study that sought to understand how teachers and department heads perceived and experienced the implementation of a classroom observation system in a teacher evaluation context. The data was collected through a teacher and department head survey and interviews with department heads who were responsible for…

Spurred by "Race to the Top," efforts to improve teacher evaluation systems have provided states with an opportunity to get teacher evaluation right. Despite the fact that a core reform area of "Race to the Top" was the use of teacher evaluation to provide on-going and meaningful feedback for instructional decision making, we…

School self-evaluation (SSE), as an important leverage for quality assurance, often relies on surveys among staff members to collect information on the schools' functioning. The extent to which respondents cognitively process items as developers intended them determines the cognitive validity of SSE results. However, it is unclear what problems…

The Vanderbilt Assessment for Leadership in Education (VAL-ED) is a 360-degree learning-centered behaviors principal evaluation tool that includes ratings from the principal, supervisors, and teachers. The current study assesses the test-retest reliability of the VAL-ED for a sample of seven school districts as part of multiple validity and…

Teacher performance evaluation currently is receiving unprecedented attention from policy makers, scholars, and practitioners worldwide. This study is one of the few studies of teacher perceptions regarding teacher performance measures that focus on China. We employed a quantitative dominant mixed research design to investigate Chinese teachers'…