Do teachers and principals perceive teacher effectiveness in the same way? Do their assessments of teacher performance match? Are teachers overly generous in selfassessment of their own effectiveness? Are principals more objective? These and related questions provided the impetus for this study, the specific purpose of which was to compare teachers' self-assessments with their principals' observed ratings of their effectiveness.
The primary objective of teacher performance assessment is to improve the quality of instruction and thus improve the overall quality of education. Much research support exists for the need of systematic observation systems (Capie, 1985; Scar, Medley, & Coker, 1983; Borich, 1977). Research into a variety of methods, procedures, and definitions of measuring effective teaching has indicated they are moderately effective at best (Bennett, 1978). There is no clear consensus and much disagreement regarding how teacher assessment models are to be constructed and what variables are to be included within the evaluation model (Dickerson & Wiersma, 1980; Borich, 1977;Peterson & Walberg, 1979;Rosenshine & Furst, 1971). Compounding the problem of model selection and teacher effectiveness criteria is the important issue of how best to assess the criteria (Coker, Medley, & Soar, 1984). Furthermore, if assessment is to have a purpose, there is a very real need to identify salient characteristics based upon the cumulative body of research knowledge on such topics as: teacher effectiveness, teacher performance evaluation, underlying philosophies of teacher performance evaluation, underlying philosophies of teacher performance assessment, policy issues, classroom research, in addition to the quantitative and qualitative aspects of measuring the performance of teachers.
Empirically based assessment projects that implement new procedures will enhance our understanding of the processes of assessing teacher effectiveness. Although much research support exists for the need of systematic observation systems (Capie, 1985;Soar, Medley, & Coker, 1983; Borich, 1977), there is virtually no evidence from this research that compares and contrasts the perceptions of observer with those self-reported perceptions of the subject being observed.