Factors that contribute to team functioning: Variables utilized to evaluate site-based teams in schools

• Main Author: Serio, Anthony
• Language: ENG
• Published: ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst 1999
• Subjects: School administration|Management|Occupational psychology
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9920650

Education Reform has legislated school governance councils to promote site-based decision making. School teams have been suggested in special education as a pre-referral resource and assistance to teachers working with special needs students. Cross-constituent groups must be brought together to restructure schools and provide instructional support. The site-based teams require evaluation. Several performance activities, variables, and levels of training and support have been suggested in studies from states where there have been attempts to implement site-based decision making. Few of these reports have attempted to quantify the activities and variables suggested for team functioning. Through a thorough literature review of the subject and an extensive survey of site teams in the public schools in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a set of team activities and variables was identified and quantified by the author. The collected data was utilized to develop an evaluation instrument. The resulting questionnaire was administrated to evaluators and team members of school site teams. A statistical analysis was performed to assess the significance of these performance descriptors in estimating the overall functioning of school site teams. The results of the statistical analysis and literature review provide the immediate supervisor with a set of variables to gain insight in the assessment of team functioning. These results can also be used to develop a self-assessment instrument to enhance team functioning. The model developed by the author can be generalized to management settings other than education. Customization of the evaluation tool is suggested as a means for future application of this study. The results of the research focus on the importance of team process and group dynamics, as well as specific product variables germane to the organization in the development of an evaluation instrument that can be used to assess overall team functioning.