The Relationship between Student Assessment, Teacher Evaluation, and Teacher Climate

High-stakes testing has been a key component in the educational landscape since policies have focused on pedagogical quality in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between student assessment, teacher evaluation, and teacher climate. The theoretical framework of Herzberg’s motivation theory guided this study. The researcher used a correlational design to analyze the relationship between student assessment, teacher evaluations, and teacher climate. The survey was given to 109 participants who were selected from a convenience sample of middle school teachers in a rural school district in Tennessee during the 2017-2018 school year. The EVAAS Teacher Attitude Scale and the Perceived Stress Due to High-Stakes Test Scale (PS-HST) were used to measure teacher attitude and stress. A correlational analysis was used to determine teachers’ perceptions on student assessment, teacher evaluations, and climate. Results revealed a strong positive relationship between teachers’ perceptions of the TVAAS school composite score and the TEAM evaluation model. However, no relationship was found between teachers’ perceptions of the TVAAS school composite scores and the climate of the teachers or between teachers’ perceptions of the TEAM evaluation model and the climate of the teachers