AN EXAMINATION OF FORMAL SCHOOL STRUCTURE AND TEACHER EVALUATION

Abstract

Research showing that teachers are the most important school-related factor for student improvement has increased attention on what and how to improve teaching quality in our classrooms. Compounding this is the heightened focus on standards-based outcomes mandated on schools and districts to quantify student growth as the key driver of measuring school effectiveness. The result of this has been an increase in financial and human capital investment to create robust teacher evaluation tools that evaluate teacher performance for the purpose of making personnel decisions and to spur improved teaching quality and effectiveness. The question remains: How can the tools meant to spur increased teacher quality – of primary interest is the teacher evaluation – be used to achieve this intended outcome? Considering this question through the lens of bureaucracy theory and classical management theory, this research aims to explore how the structural contexts of the school influence perceived usefulness of the teacher evaluation. Narrowing the research focus to organizational structure and structure-related consequences for employee evaluation was chosen because structure is mutable. That is, leaders and other organizational actors have a degree of control over the use of formal structures to guide individual behavior and collective action. Therefore, this research has application for how scholars and practitioners can adjust school structure to enhance the effectiveness of teacher evaluation.