Abstract
Purpose. This study sought to identify and analyze teacher evaluation criteria used by California school districts in the formal evaluation of teachers and to interface the identified evaluation criteria with teacher effectiveness criteria identified in the literature. Methodology. Letters were sent to the chief personnel officers of one hundred randomly selected California school districts requesting copies of their teacher evaluation materials. The evaluation materials were analyzed and evaluation criteria classified. The statistical treatment of chi-square was used to determine statistically significant criteria sub-categories considering the variable of type of district. The evaluation criteria were then interfaced with teacher effectiveness criteria identified by a review of the professional literature. Findings. Representative findings included the following: (1) The number of evaluation criteria used by district varies greatly, (2) The mean frequency count of criteria identified was six point seven, (3) No differences, based upon type of district, were found in terms of the rank order by total criteria assigned to job performance categories, (4) Three criteria sub-categories were found to be statistically significant when type of district was considered, (5) A quarter of the evaluation criteria could be matched with corresponding teacher effectiveness criteria. Conclusions. There is not an identifiable generic set of evaluation criteria used by California districts. Types of school districts generally place the same degree of evaluation emphasis on specific teacher job roles. The degree of interface between research findings and practice is minimal. The lack of interface between research and practice is probably the result of the differing needs of these two educational fields. Recommendations. Representative recommendations from this study are: (1) Administrators need to recognize the subjectiveness of teacher evaluation criteria presently used in California school districts, (2) Based upon research findings it seems appropriate for administrators to develop evaluation criteria which is subject or grade level specific, (3) Researchers need to recognize and address areas other than basic skills in the study of teacher effectiveness.