An Appraisal of the Teacher Appraisal System

It is widely believed in academics that what gets assessed is what gets taught. High quality teaching is essential to improve student outcomes. Therefore, teacher evaluation or appraisal is high on education agenda. The basic objective of this work is to critically appraise the prevailing teacher appraisal system at secondary level of schooling.This paper is an integral part of the doctoral dissertation - 'A study of Management Practices of Secondary Schools'.The primary data was collected through self designed questionnaire from a stratified sample of 188 secondary schools - about 34% of the population in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh in India. The findings reveal that no formal appraisal activity is practiced in public sector schools while a majority of the private unaided managements were implementing on their own. A strong association is observed between the type of school and the preference for an integrated teacher appraisal system.