A Construct for Special Education Teacher Evaluation Using Cultural Domain Analysis and Cultural Consensus Analysis

This study examined the shared understanding between principals and special education teachers (SETs) regarding the instructional practices and components essential for special education teacher evaluations. Shared mental models and Cultural Consensus Theory (CCT) guided the methodology. Cultural Domain Analysis (CDA), Cultural Consensus Analysis (CCA), and Discourse Analysis provided the structure for data collection and analysis. Findings suggest that principals and SETs share consensus about how evaluation items are grouped yet differ in their understanding of how items are grouped overall. Principals tended to group items into two main topic areas: evaluation items applicable to all teachers and special education-specific themes. SETs tended to group items into three topic areas including (a) working in classrooms; (b) working with other adults; and (c) compliance-related activities. An existing pre-conference observation checklist was enhanced based on these results and was shared with one former principal, one SET, and one special education director. The SET focused on the importance of student agency, the former principal focused on high expectations for teachers, and the special education director focused on high expectations for SETs and the field of special education in general.