A study of the reliability and concurrent validity of the ICIS-Urban teacher interview instrument

The objective of this study was to determine the reliability and concurrent validity of the Interactive Computer Information System-Urban (ICIS-Urban) teacher selection tool and identify which scales of the ICIS-Urban have a greater degree of concurrent validity.; Thirty teachers (n=30) from an urban district participated in a field test of the interview tool which was derived from information obtained from professional associations and literature. Correlations were calculated between the scores of the participants from both the ICIS and the ICIS-Urban tools and ratings provided by administration in the participating urban school district. Positive correlations between the teachers' effectiveness ratings by the administration and the scores obtained from this instrument through regression analysis indicative a predictive validity of this tool in identifying teacher effectiveness.; Statistical analyses indicated a significant correlation between the ICIS-Urban scales Aptitude/Suitability for Urban Teachers (UT), Knowledge of Teaching (KT) and Knowledge of Students (KS) and the district rating of the teacher but a weak correlation between the ICIS-Urban scales of Knowledge of Content (KC) and Working with Others (WO). Pearson correlation coefficients were also conducted between the dependent variable, district rating (DR), and independent variables with the strongest sample correlation with KT of r=0.664. The lowest value was with WO reporting a value of r=0.334.; Using a priori significance level of 0.05, the contributions of WO ( p=0.0706) and KC (p=0.0644) are not significant in predicting DR as evidenced from sample population correlation coefficients. The sample size of this study (n=30) inherently leads to questionable interpretive results of p-values and further studies should be conducted with larger samples to determine more accurately the effect of the variables with each other using the priori significance level of .05.; Overall, the implications of this study indicate the ICIS-Urban teacher interview is a valid instrument in predicting the quality and potential impact a teacher candidate will have in an urban school district. Further research should be done with larger populations and must include review and revision of the Knowledge of Content (KC) and the Working with Others (WO) scales.