The College of Education, Health and
Human Sciences
Announces the Final Examination of
Calvin Lacy
for the degree of
Doctor of Education
November 10, 2014 @ 1:00 p.m.
Ball Hall 123
University of Memphis
Memphis, TN
Biographical Sketch
Bachelor of Science, Educational Psychology, Alcorn State University
Master of Science, Educational Leadership, University of Memphis
Advisory Committee
Larry McNeal, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Leadership, Committee Chair
Reginald Green, Ed.D., Professor, Department Of Leadership
Charisse Gulosino, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Leadership
Donald Hopper, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Leadership
Major Field of Study
Educational Leadership
Period of Preparation: 2008 – 2014
Comprehensive Examination Passed: October 2012
An Examination Of Urban Teachers’ Perception Of Evaluation And Its The Relationship Between Teacher Leadership, School-Decision Making And Professional Intentions
Abstract
Lacy, Calvin, Ed.D., The University of Memphis, December 2014. An Examination of Urban Teachers’ Perception of Evaluation and Its Relationship Between Teacher Leadership, School-Decision Making and Professional Intentions. Major Professor: Dr. Larry McNeal, Ph.D.
The purpose of this study was to examine how teachers perceive the quality of their evaluations and the relationship of these perceptions to others involving their sense of themselves as “teacher leaders,” their self-assessed level involvement in various types of school decisions, and their future intentions as pedagogical “stayers” or “leavers.” The perceptions of these teachers will be compared to individual outcomes, i.e. teacher leadership, school-decision making, and professional intentions. The importance of their perceptions and impact it can have on teachers’ intentions to leave or remain in the profession are tantamount to stabilizing the profession in the 21st century.
Among the four variables and six relationships studied, statistically significant correlations were observed both for the sample of over 4,500 teachers as a whole as well as for subgroups of teachers by educational level, total years of teaching experience, and years of experience at the teacher’s current school. While these grouping variables were not always seen to impact the strength of these relationships, the relationships that were consistently affected involved teachers’ perceptions of their decision-making roles. A teacher’s educational level as elementary or secondary was observed to mediate the relationship between perceptions of teacher role and perceptions of teacher evaluation (Z = 2.42, p < .05) and perceptions of teacher role and perceptions of teacher leadership (Z = 2.73, p < .01). Likewise did a teacher’s overall years of years of teaching experience appear to impact the linkage between both the former pair of perceptions (Z = 3.30, p < .001) and the latter pair of perceptions (Z = 5.65, p < .001). At the same time, when tenure became the grouping factor, no such impact was seen either on these two or any of the other four relationships that this study investigated.
In sum, the results of this study would appear to indicate that teacher leadership can be abetted and teacher tenure attenuated to the extent that teachers see themselves as being evaluated in an objective, consistent, and instructionally helpful manner. Mitigating factors such as the number of years at present school, the total years of teaching and the educational level being taught were studied and compared to the original research question. Hence, if a teacher feels vested by time and a part of the educational decisions of the school, the more likely they are to remain in the profession. Data for this research was analyzed using statistical computational methods. The results from the data analysis determined that level of school being taught (elementary and secondary) and the total number of years has the most significant impact on teachers’ perception of evaluation.