An Estimate of the Reliability of a Technique of Increasing Educational Accountability through Goal Analysis Involving Community, Staff, and Students

Abstract

This study investigated whether data generated via the use of a school needs assessment model can provide local school boards and other district personnel with reliable decision-making information for program and policy revision. Each member of a randomly selected sample from three Iowa school districts was requested to rate and rank the 18 educational goal statements of the Phi Delta Kappa Educa tional Planning Model (16), both as individuals and as members of a small group. Initially these small groups were randomly divided into two halves. The mean goal ratings of the two groups were then correlated with each other. Three societal groups-faculty, students, and community members-represented each school's sample. The relationship of a person's status to the movement of his individual goal pref erence ratings during the small group consensus goal rating process was examined. Results indicated that in all participating school dis tricts, there was a high degree of correlation between goal preference ratings generated by both halves of the randomly split sample. High correlation values linked with a high level of significance tends to support the hypothesis that this type of model is reliable, in that it does produce consistency of result in providing for the intended measure. Further analysis revealed that differences in movement of individual goal preference ratings in achieving small group consensus, due to person status, were statistically significant, thus indicating that a per