Conducted case studies of two principals involved in a new teacher evaluation, assessment, and professional growth system. Discusses implications of the findings for linking teacher evaluation, newer conceptions of school leadership, and school improvement. (SLD)

The "Personnel Evaluation Standards" of D. Stufflebeam (1988) were used as a framework for the historical analysis of Louisiana's effort to implement a statewide program to evaluate its 45,000 teachers for the purpose of renewable professional certification. Using the "Standards" provided insights into the evaluation process…

Describes the development, implementation, and Web-based support for a new comprehensive system designed for the annual evaluation and professional growth of all teachers in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Florida. The system has been developed to embrace newer philosophies of professional teaching practice and new theories of teaching and…

Metaphors and metaphor usage infuse everyday classroom life, and student learning becomes affected and structured by the metaphoric constructs that teachers wittingly or unwittingly employ. This study is an initial inquiry into the nature of teacher use of metaphors in the classroom. The study attempts to identify some specific teaching/learning…

One of the major problems in assessing teacher effectiveness has been defining criteria for good teaching. There is as yet little conclusive evidence as to the nature and means of identifying teacher competence. The types of teacher effectiveness evaluations are: (1) studies based on expert opinion and consensus of judges; (2) studies using school…

One hundred of the largest school districts from seven regions were surveyed to scrutinize local teacher evaluation policies and practices, to determine the efficiency of local evaluation instruments and procedures, and to compare local teacher evaluation with state teacher evaluation programs. The Teacher Evaluation Practices Survey (TEPS) was…

This paper reports results of a follow-up, second-year survey conducted in an effort to gain a greater understanding of the perceptions and level of acceptance of informed educators regarding the Louisiana Teaching Internship Program (LTIP) and the Louisiana Teacher Evaluation Program (LTEP) prior to statewide implementation. These are new and…

This study investigated the predictive validity of the Teacher Performance Assessment Instruments (TPAI) using pupil gains on teacher-made tests (TMT) as a criterion. The TPAI and the TMT's were administered to 56 elementary and secondary classrooms in Georgia. Results supported the validity of the TPAI with a large number of correlations ranging…

Local school district teacher evaluation plans, processes, and procedures were studied to determine whether they measure up to the criteria outlined by D. Stufflebeam's "Personnel Evaluation Standards" (1988). The applicability and interpretability of the "Standards" across 14 actual cases from local school districts in…

This Louisiana System for Teaching and Learning Assessment and Review (STAR) illustrates conceptual, methodological, and social/political issues emerging when the decision-making model used to make teacher certification decisions does not fit the assumptions of the measurement system used to collect the data. (SLD)

This paper presents the results of ongoing analyses of the reliability of the System for Teaching and Learning Assessment and Review (STAR) as a comprehensive measure of classroom teaching and learning for making teacher certification decisions. Focus was on the effects of high stakes assessment conditions for certification on the generalizability…

Describes the System for Teaching and Learning Assessment and Review (STAR), a comprehensive, classroom-based observation system for assessing teaching and learning, as well as interactive, psychosocial, and physical elements of the learning environment. The paper presents results of initial validity and reliability studies supporting the system.…

This study continues prior efforts that were reported by the same authors to examine teacher perceptions of teacher assessment programs for a fourth year, one year after the initial statewide implementation and subsequent suspension by the state legislature, of the teacher assessment and evaluation program in Louisiana. The state initiated,…