Adaptation of the innovation configurations for school-based staff developers for the development of a measure of reading coach job performance

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] The problem in the study was that a consistent instrument to evaluate the job performance of Missouri Reading First coaches had not been identified. The Innovation Configurations for School-Based Staff Developers (Killion & Harrison, 2006) were adapted to specifically address the role of the Reading First coach. Fifty-six Missouri Reading First coaches and 16 expert panel members who work with and train the coaches completed a survey instrument containing the 56 desired outcomes. Face and content validity were established by the expert panel. Both groups rated each of the 56 items on two six-point scales pertaining to its importance and the level at which the behavior was perceived to be occurring. Kendall's tau correlation and R2 were calculated to determine the strength of the relationship between importance and behavior. Medium to strong relationships were found on most of the 56 items. Factor analysis utilizing principal components and varimax rotation with an eigenvalue criteria of 2.5 on both scales reduced the 56 items to 21 items. Items retained on the final instrument were retained on each of the scales separately and cross-matched. The final 21 items were aligned with six of the ten roles for school-based staff developers. Discriminant function analysis revealed no differences among the groups on the final 21 items utilizing the scores from the behavior scale.