Integrating School Evaluation with Inservice Education: A Paradigm for Staff Development.

Using suggested guidelines for the improvement of inservice programs benefits," the process of the school evaluation was viewed as a form of staff education program was designed. In lieu of the idea that "team based problem solving can give individual teachers significant staff development benefits," the process of the school evaluation was viewed as a form of staff development or inservice education. The school evaluation/inservice education model providing means of evaluating elementary school programs incorporates five phases: (1) psychological readiness for change; (2) development of self-assessment skills and procedures; (3) examination of evaluative criteria for school improvement; (4) formation of external evaluation teams consisting of three classroom teachers, one special teacher, one school administrator; and (5) designing a follow-up questionnaire. This year-long self-study program assessed buildings, administration, curriculum, and staff and support services at an elementary school in Pennsylvania. The Attitude Toward Inservice (ATI) instrument was administered at the beginning and end of the program. The Level of Use (LoU) instrument was administered at the end of the program. This paper describes the development and implementation of the program, and discusses the results as revealed by responses to the ATI and LoU measurement instruments. A copy of the ATI instrument is appended as well as a graphical depiction of the over-all LoU. (JD)