TEACHER EVALUATION IN NORTH CAROLINA : TEACHER PERCEPTIONS DURING A TIME OF CHANGE

Abstract

Teacher evaluation has the potential to lead to improved instruction and professional growth, but, in practice, this potential is often unrealized. North Carolina has revised its teacher evaluation process to include many of the elements that are supported by research as necessary for effective teacher evaluation. The purpose of this study was to determine whether these changes have had any effect on teacher perceptions of evaluation as measured by specific questions on the North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions (TWC) Survey. These TWC Survey questions asked teachers whether they are held to high professional standards for delivering instruction, whether they receive feedback that can help them improve instruction, whether the procedures for teacher evaluation are consistent, whether they are encouraged to reflect on their own practice, and whether they are encouraged to try new things to improve instruction. The new teacher evaluation process in North Carolina was piloted in 2007-08 and then implemented in three phases beginning in the fall of 2008. Data from the 2008 and 2010 TWC Surveys were obtained from the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards Commission. A series of dependent samples t tests was conducted to compare TWC Survey responses from a group of school districts in 2008, when they had not yet begun to use the new teacher evaluation process, to their responses in 2010 after almost two years of experience with the process. The results of the t tests yielded no significant differences. A series of independent samples t tests was conducted to compare responses from a set of districts that, at the time of the 2010 TWC Survey, had been using the new teacher evaluation process between two and three years to a set of districts that had not yet begun to use the new process and to the responses from the state as a whole. There was a small but significant positive difference in teacher perceptions in those LEAs that had the most experience with the new teacher evaluation process at the time of the 2010 TWC Survey.