| The purpose of this study was to discover whether or not the California Stull Act, as intended for school administrator implementation, is an effective tool to impact teacher practice. Furthermore, the study sought to uncover other organizational tools and processes implemented at a high performing urban elementary school that worked in conjunction with the evaluation process, to impact teacher practice and practitioners' perceptions of these tools. Themes explored relate to well-supported characteristics of an effective teacher evaluation system and to the major elements associated with the teacher evaluation process.;An urban public elementary school in Los Angeles, California was selected for the study, as a result of its high student achievement as measured by California's Academic Performance Index (API). The strategy of inquiry employed for this qualitative research study was the case study approach. The text data from document reviews, observational field notes and open-ended interview questions lent themselves well to investigating the phenomenon of teacher evaluation, the factors shaping the school level effort to teacher evaluation and the effectiveness of the process as perceived by administrators and teachers. Individual interviews were conducted with a total of 3 (11%) teachers, 2 administrators and 2 instructional coaches at the case study school. To further ensure the triangulation of data, a quantitative survey was used to support individual teacher interview responses. Surveys from a total of 16 (59%) teachers at the case study school were completed and analyzed.;Analysis of the data indicated that the Stull policy and processes for teacher evaluation in California did not appear to have a significant impact on instructional practice in the classroom. Although the administrators at the case study school did implement the elements of the Stull process, there were other school level efforts that were perceived by both teachers and administrators as having greater impact on teacher practice. These efforts included instructional coaches, mentorship, observation of demonstration lessons, teacher articulation and collaboration, professional development, and school site culture. |
