Professional community and peer review in public education: A study of two school districts

Improving teacher quality is a major goal of school reform. One tool to improve teacher performance is peer evaluation, using teachers rather than administrators to review and assist the work of fellow teachers. Districts with long-term peer evaluation programs report lower turnover among new teachers. Peer evaluation also offers rigorous methods to assist struggling teachers, or to remove them. Many teachers resist peer evaluation, however, concerned it may disrupt collegiality and professional community at their schools.; This dissertation examined the influence of peer evaluation on teacher professionalism and professional community. A factor analysis analyzed these concepts using items from the national Schools and Staffing Survey, generating a scale for measuring Individual Commitment. This analysis broke down Professional Community into two dimensions: A horizontal dimension referring to the degree of collegiality and mutual respect among teachers; and a vertical dimension that captures the relations between teachers and administrators.; To test how peer evaluation affects teacher professionalism, I studied two districts that have used peer evaluation for many years. Columbus, Ohio is an urban district with a high minority population and low academic achievement. Poway, California is a suburban district with a relatively low minority population and high academic achievement. I compared responses from a survey of staff in these districts with similar data from the 1994 Schools and Staffing Survey. A content analysis was also performed of written comments from the survey. Regression and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) tested the relationship between Individual Commitment, Professional Community, and several independent variables. These studies used a data base combining survey data from Poway with a sub-sample of the national SASS data. (Columbus data were excluded because of a low return rate).; Initial comparisons of responses from Poway and Columbus showed higher levels of individual professionalism and professional community than for the national sample. These early findings were not sustained by regression and HLM, however. More significant in predicting individual professionalism is the degree to which teachers influence school decisions. Where peer evaluation programs exist, there is no significant influence on professionalism, after accounting for such factors as perceived staff influence.