Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) To determine the perceptions of teachers who have and have not used a teacher evaluation portfolio in regard to subjectivity, time constraints, and fairness in the teacher evaluation portfolio process, and (2) To determine if there were significant differences in perceptions between those teachers who have and those who have not used the teacher evaluation portfolio in the areas of subjectivity, time constraints, and fairness. Methodology. The researcher used descriptive research. The population consisted of all teachers who had the option to be evaluated by the teacher evaluation portfolio or not to be evaluated by a teacher evaluation portfolio from three elementary schools in the Fresno Unified School District, Fresno County, California. A questionnaire was utilized to collect data to answer nine research questions. Findings. (1) Teachers who have and have not used the teacher evaluation portfolio moderately agree that the process is subjective. There was no significant difference between teachers who have and have not used the teacher evaluation portfolio in the area of subjectivity. (2) There was a significant difference in response between teachers who have and have not used the teacher evaluation portfolio in the area of time. Teachers who have used the teacher evaluation portfolio do not believe the process to be time consuming, while teachers who have not had experience with the teacher evaluation portfolio believe the process to be time consuming. (3) There was a significant difference in responses between teachers who had and had not used the teacher evaluation portfolio in the area of fairness. Teachers who have had experience with the teacher evaluation portfolio in general believe the process to be a fair form of evaluation, while those teachers who have not had experience with the teacher evaluation portfolio disagree that the process is a fair form of evaluation. Conclusions. The results of this study indicate that teachers who have and have not used the teacher evaluation portfolio have different perceptions of the process as it relates to the areas of subjectivity, time constraints, and fairness. Teachers who have had experience with the teacher evaluation portfolio perceive the process to be subjective, not time consuming, and a fair form of evaluation. Teachers who have not had experience with the teacher evaluation portfolio perceive the process to be subjective, time consuming, and an unfair form of evaluation. Among the recommendations are: (1) Districts should study the reasons that encourage or discourage participation in the teacher evaluation portfolio process. (2) Districts and site administrators may want to study teachers who used evaluation portfolio in their training to determine if they are more likely to participate in the teacher evaluation portfolio process. (3) Site administrators should determine if their leadership encourages or discourages a teacher's participation in the portfolio evaluation process.