Teachers generally feel that the evaluation models surfacing in response to state and national mandates are monistic, mechanistic, and inappropriate. Based on North Carolina's experience with the Teacher Performance Appraisal Instrument, an alternative instrument comparing teachers' suppositional and propositional pedagogical styles was created.…

Describes one high school teacher's frustration with her principal's well-intentioned observations about her teaching. The realities of classroom life and the rigors of the principal's job, coupled with training differences, cause each participant to view the same events differently. (MLH)

In 1984, a Salt Lake City school district began developing a merit pay program to cover all certified teachers. A committee of teachers designed an assessment method called AIM. Implementation involved developing measurement criteria, establishing evaluation procedures, providing feedback, creating a merit pay plan tied to career development, and…

Summarizes a case involving a teacher's use of a "magic rock" to enhance students' self-esteem. The teacher's eventual dismissal turned on unfavorable performance evaluations, not religious beliefs. The Eighth Circuit Court's decision to award front pay instead of reinstatement achieved the right result for the wrong reason, harbinging…

A principal boasts that he spends two hours a day in classrooms. And it is true--he really does visit his school's 17 teachers daily, chatting with students and occasionally chiming in on a lesson. But when teachers are asked what kind of feedback they get, they say the principal rarely talks to them about what he sees when he strolls through…

Available evidence indicates that the Teacher Perceiver Interview fails to meet minimal requirements for instrument validity. (Author/IRT)

The author defends the Teacher Perceiver Interview method against criticism offered in the immediately preceding article. (IRT)

This principal developed a collaborative teacher evaluation process that is based on an evaluation procedure with clearly defined school goals and performance objectives. (MD)

A recent Supreme Court decision on a First Amendment case involving a teacher in Texas illustrates how teachers' and other public employees' rights to freedom of speech face serious erosion. The problem is deciding whether grievances fall into the protected area of "public concern" or the unprotected area of a "purely private…

This article suggests that current teacher licensure standards and processes need revision, and recommends new State certification agencies whose main concern would be to return authority to local districts to develop their own standards. (JH)

Describes five problems that contribute to causing schools to ignore their guiding statements and recommends six ways to solve them. Concludes with an example of an ideal set of guiding statements. (PKP)

Teachers and administrators in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, received inservice training to prepare them for participation in a widely appreciated supervisory relationship that grants teachers professional respect and reserves formal evaluation for teachers who are clearly failing to meet objectives cited in their personal professional growth plans. (PGD)

Teaching can be respected as a genuine profession when teachers are experts in their subject matter and effectively induct students into that expertise. This requires a strong preservice program and rigorous licensing requirements, accompanied by effective induction programs, peer review, intervention programs, ongoing professional development,…