CONCORDANCE AMONG ADMINISTRATORS, PEERS AND STUDENTS IN RANKING TEACHERS
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine whether administrators, teachers, and senior students in high schools with large enrollments show strong agreement when ranking a group of ten teachers from the most effective classroom teacher to the least effective classroom teacher. The population for this study was 38 high schools in the state of Indiana with student body populations in excess of 1600. From that population, four were geographically selected to test the hypotheses. To obtain rankings in terms of classroom teacher effectiveness, two separate groups of ten teachers were randomly selected from each of the schools. The rankings were accomplished in three ways--all teachers within the group in which they were assigned ranked one another; twenty randomly selected senior students, ten of which ranked one group with the others ranking the second group; administrators in the respective schools ranked both groups. An instrument deliberately not defining teacher classroom effectiveness was given to each of the groups in a set with the only difference being the specific names of the teachers common to each set. Kendall's Coefficient of Concordance, W, and the Kruskal and Wallis test were used to test the association of ranks. Five hypotheses were tested: Within group administrator agreement, teacher agreement, and student agreement, pooled between group agreement within sets, and agreement among schools. These are the major findings: (1) Among high schools which were studied, administrators, teachers, and senior students indicated a pooled rank concordance of classroom teacher effectiveness. (2) Within each high school studied, administrators, teachers, and senior students taken as individual groups indicated a pooled rank concordance of a group of teachers to determine those who are most and least effective. (3) While concordance was exhibited by each of the three groups, administrators displayed a higher degree of concordance than that of either the teacher or senior student groups. (4) When all three groups were considered collectively within each school, concordance was achieved in ranking teacher effectiveness. (5) A collective rank of teacher effectiveness is a more appropriate overall ranking than any one individual's ranking.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Teacher education
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