Performance-Based Teacher Evaluation in Missouri: A Three-Year Report

Abstract

The teacher performance evaluation, mandated in Missouri by a bill that legislators enacted during 1983, is a process for professional development through the identification and documentation of job related expectations and skills, and an opportunity to improve skill and job related decisionmaking. To determine the degree of implementation and the impact of performance evaluation procedures across the state, in 1986 one half of Missouri's superintendents were mailed a four-page survey. Usable responses were received from 219 of the 272 districts selected. Results indicate that: (1) by the 1985-86 school year, 98 percent of the districts used a performance-based teacher evaluation (PBTE) system; (2) committees of teachers and administrators were used 52 percent of the time for PBTE system development and implementation; (3) essentially identical systems to the state PBTE model were used by 85 percent of the respondents; and (4) the majority of the respondents believed that PBTE will help improve instruction and student achievement over the next five years.