| No Child Left Behind requires that all students be taught by a highly qualified teacher. However, half of the teachers entering the workforce leave the profession within the first five years. In addition, urban districts face their own unique challenges such as diversity, poverty, a high degree of mobility, inadequate facilities and supplies, and bureaucracies. This study first examines the literature describing the characteristics of effective urban teachers. Secondly, this study compares the literature with questions from the American Association of School Personnel Administrators' (AASPA) Interactive Computer Interview Instrument (ICIS)-Urban. It attempts to identify the best predictive questions from this instrument and whether the questions could be better grouped into a unique scale for urban districts.; Questions with the lowest correlations to the district rating are systematically eliminated to improve the model. Three alternatives are analyzed, and the one resulting in twelve questions to be used in the ICIS-Urban scale is found to be the most effective with a correlation coefficient of .586. Reliabilities greater than 0.80 are considered acceptable and scores above 0.90 are considered excellent. Cronbach's alpha proved to be .891, approaching the excellent level. |
