The College of Education, Health and
Human Sciences
Announces the Final Examination of
Christopher Ike Murrah
for the degree of
Doctor of Education
April 8, 2014 at 1:00 pm
123 Ball Hall, University of Memphis
Memphis, TN
Biographical Sketch
Bachelor of Science, Biology, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Master’s Degree, Educational Leadership, Arkansas State University
Advisory Committee
Reginald Green, Ed.D., Professor, Leadership, Committee Chair
Larry McNeal, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Leadership
Mitsunori Misawa, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Leadership
Beverly Cross, Ph.D., Holder of the Chair Excellence, Education, Health and Human Science
Major Field of Study
Educational Leadership
2008-2014
Comprehensive Examination Passed: Fall 2011
Principal Observation of Practice and Stakeholder Perception: A Correlative Study of Alignment and Their Relationship to Teacher Effectiveness as Measured by the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System
Abstract
This study was focused on the strength of legacy Memphis City School’s model for measuring effective teaching, known as the Teacher Effectiveness Measure. The Teacher Effectiveness Measure was comprised of five measurable components and weighted accordingly: Teacher observation, 35%; teacher content knowledge, 5%; stakeholder perception, 5%; student achievement, 15%; student growth, 35%. The purpose of this correlational study was two-fold. First, the researcher wanted to determine whether the Principal’s Observation of Practice and the Stakeholder Perception Survey measurements aligned. Secondly, the researcher wanted to understand the relationship, if any, between TVAAS and these two observation measures. For each of the 1,783 teachers in tested areas, data were collected and analyzed based on Principal Observations of Practice against a common rubric, Stakeholder Perception surveys, the Tripod Student Perception Survey aimed at assessing a student’s classroom experiences with a specific teacher, and a value-added measurement, TVAAS, designed to illustrate the impact a teacher has on a student’s academic growth.
The results of this study suggested that the way in which principals rate teacher effectiveness and the way in which stakeholders, in this case students, rate teacher effectiveness were not the same. The results suggested that the ratings principals and students gave a teacher were only occasionally supported by equivalent academic growth results as measured by TVAAS. Finally, the results of this study suggested that while Principal Observation of Practice resulted in weak TVAAS predictive power, the addition of Stakeholder Perception did not increase TVAAS predictive power in a meaningful way.