Teacher Perceptions of Student Growth Measures in Performance Evaluation

The accountability measures for schools originally outlined in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation established links between student and teacher performance. Race to the Top (RttT) initiatives and waivers for the original Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) legislation required these links be used for teacher accountability in the form of including student growth measures, value-added measures, or student achievement data into teacher performance evaluations. While the most recent renewal of ESEA, referred to as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), has removed this inclusion as a requirement, the language of ESSA still encourages the use for merit pay and compensation measures. While the intent is clear, to hold teachers accountable and hopefully, improve practice, the question occurs, how do teachers perceive these reforms? This qualitative narrative multiple case study examined those perceptions through the lived experiences of six core content teachers from a large mid-western middle school whose district has adopted an evaluation tool and process that allows for student growth measures to be included in a summative performance evaluation score. Through interviews, narratives, and shared artifacts, participants contributed to the understanding of the phenomenon. Each participant was treated as a separate case, and their in-depth interviews and responses to narrative prompts were analyzed using the three-dimensional narrative inquiry space. Cross-case analysis was used to analyze individual cases with the intent to identify similarities and differences across multiple cases. The results were used to answer the research question: How do teachers perceive the use of student growth measures in evaluations used for performance evaluation for intermediate grades teachers at an urban mid-western middle school?

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D. (Doctor of Education)

Level thesis:degree_level

Ed.D.

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education (UMKC)

Grantor

University of Missouri--Kansas City

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Most, Ryan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Caruthers, Loyce Ellenor, 1947-

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10355/70903

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:mospace.umsystem.edu:10355/70903