| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺北教育大學 === 教育政策與管理研究所 === 95 === A Meta-evaluation of the Academic Affairs Appraisal at Elementary Schools in Keelung City
Tsai Chin Ting
Abstract.
The present study aims to evaluate the academic affairs appraisal in Keelung City. The actual implementation of academic affairs appraisals in Keelung City is described in this paper, then conclusions are drawn based on the findings about attitudes among school administrators, faculty and staff toward the academic affairs appraisal, followed by a discussion. Several strategies to improve the academic affairs appraisal framework for elementary schools in Keelung City are proposed as suggestions to aid educational administrative authorities’ decision- making.
26 elementary schools which received the Keelung City Educational Bureau’s academic affairs appraisal in the academic years of 2004 and 2005 were included in the analyses. A total of 592 questionnaires were distributed to school principals, department administrators, and other faculty; 543 (91.72%) returned ones were valid. SPSS10.0 was used to analyze the survey items. Statistical techniques used include mean, standard deviation, reliability analysis, independent sample t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and post hoc comparisons.
A focus group was also carried out in the present study. A total of 15 individuals, including school principals, directors, teachers, former committee members for the academic affairs appraisal, representatives from the teachers’ association, members of PTA, and people from the community unrelated to the educational system, were selected for the focus group. Topics for the focus group included the purpose, content, evaluation methods, standards of the academic affairs appraisal in Keelung elementary schools, and how the appraisal results are utilized. Discussions based on information collected from this focus group were used to derive strategies for improving the academic affairs appraisal in Keelung City.
Results from the data analysis indicate that:
1. Average agreement toward the utility standard of the academic affairs appraisal is 3.47, suggesting that improvement for the utility of the academic affairs appraisal is needed.
2. Average agreement toward the feasibility standard of the academic affairs appraisal is 3.37, suggesting that it needs to be revised for at least some of its implementation methods.
3. Average agreement toward the propriety standard of the academic affairs appraisal is 3.48, this finding indicates that the propriety of the academic affairs appraisal needs improvement.
4. Average agreement toward the accuracy standard of the academic affairs appraisal is 3.40, suggesting that improvement is needed in this standard as well.
5. Male participants have higher agreement toward the academic affairs appraisal than female participants.
6. Participants’ educational background is not related to the attitude toward the academic affairs appraisal.
7. Participants’ tenure and size of the school are found to be related to attitudes toward the academic affairs appraisal, and this relationship is statistically significant.
8. There is a need for a comprehensive follow-up system for evaluating the academic affairs appraisal in Keelung City.
The top authorities in the educational system need to establish systematic follow-ups in order to better assess and understand the improvements made by the schools.
Based on the findings from the present study, the author provides following suggestions:
1. Suggestions to school administrators:
i. school administrators need to improve their utilization of the academic affairs appraisal reports.
ii. school administrators need to improve the cost-effectiveness of the academic affairs appraisal.
iii. school administrators need to ascertain the purposes of the academic affairs appraisal.
2. Suggestions to school organizations:
i. school activities need to meet community and parents’ expectations and they need to be cost-effective.
ii. school principals need to take the faculty’s tenure, the size of the school, and the faculty’s gender into account when allocating a school’s assignments.
3. Suggestions for future studies:
i. there is a need for the academic affairs appraisal to be standardized. The author suggests that future research should consider using longitudinal (never heard of action study, are u sure that’s the correct term?) studies or case studies as methods to more thoroughly investigate the process of standardization of academic affairs appraisal work in Keelung City.
ii. The author anticipates that future studies which use a longitudinal or case study design will provide information to facilitate the standardization of the academic affairs appraisal and other kinds of appraisals.
iii. future studies can also focus on the viewpoint of a comparative study design to compare the academic affairs appraisal system in Keelung City to other geographical areas which conduct the academic affairs appraisal with different features or have more successful results.
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