The student views the teacher: Investigating student perception in assessment of high school teachers

The purpose of this study was to examine student assessment of teachers at the secondary level and to add to the body of knowledge pertaining to the role of student evaluation of teacher performance in the instructional improvement process. The study was designed to determine which teacher behaviors and student/teacher relationship characteristics influenced summative assessments of teachers and if the influence was distorted by certain potentially biasing variables. Student assessments of teachers were compared to principal assessments of teachers to determine whether significant differences in ratings existed between these two evaluative sources.The research questions focused on the composition of effective teachers and examined rating differences occurring between students and principals. The composition variables examined were teachers' classroom control, communication skills, concern for students, fairness, friendliness, feedback to students, organization skills, presentation skills, relevancy of materials used, respect for students, enthusiasm, and encouragement. Student assessments and principal assessments were analyzed to determine the set of variables that were most closely related to the overall performance rating of the teacher for each rater group. Potentially biasing variables (i.e., teacher age, grade received, teacher gender, respondent gender, teaching experience, and teacher affability) were analyzed to determine their influence on the performance ratings of both respondent groups.The findings indicated principal raters and student raters view teacher performance in distinct ways. Principal ratings varied from student ratings in their mean, variance, key components of efficacious teaching, and in individual teacher assessment. This study found the 12 independent variables to be highly interdependent with no single variable determining teacher overall effectiveness. Principal raters were found to be more susceptible to potential bias than students; however, a weak positive biasing influence was found for students' overall ratings of teacher performance with "grade received" by the student.