Teachers’ Perceptions of the Frequency of Evaluation and Assessments of Their Effort and Effectiveness

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between teacher perceptions of the frequency of evaluation activity and assessments of their effort and effectiveness. Drawing on the theory of evaluation and the exercise of authority developed byDornbusch and Scott (1975), we proposed two hypotheses concerning the impact of evaluation processes on teacher leverage, the ratio of effectiveness to effort. First we predicted a curvilinear relationship between the frequency of evaluation activities and teacher leverage. Second, we expected that the impact of evaluation on teacher leverage would be influenced by the ways in which teachers conceived of their teaching tasks. We predicted a curvilinear relationship between the degree to which teachers conceived of their tasks as active or unpredictable and the impact of evaluation on leverage. The hypotheses were examined in a survey of 182 teachers in six inner-city middle schools. Neither hypothesis was confirmed. The results indicated a positive relationship between frequency of evaluation and teacher leverage. Teachers reporting more frequent evaluation activity experienced a greater degree of effectiveness in relation to effort on their teaching tasks. The second hypothesis could not be examined because teachers in the study conceived of all of their teaching tasks as highly inert or predictable.