Evaluating evaluators: The qualifications of principals to evaluate teachers in accredited international schools in the East Asia Regional Council of Overseas Schools

Teacher perception of principal qualifications and competence to evaluate personnel has long been one of many barriers to effective and legitimate teacher evaluation systems. There is an inherent presumption on the part of administrators and teachers that people holding the position of principal have developed a professional competency throughout their years as educators that, in part, is the reason why they have earned the position they currently hold. The reality of this presumption is that teachers are far more skeptical than principals concerning those qualifications. If that skepticism is justified, as many teachers believe it to be, it serves as a significant impediment to teacher evaluation systems within a school and undermines any positive objectives for why those evaluation systems are present in the first place.; The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived competence and actual qualifications of division lead administrators to evaluate teaching staff.; The study examined one specific international schools region, the East Asia Regional Council of Overseas Schools (EARCOS). Using a descriptive design, the study provided data on the current level of preparation, qualification, and competence of division principals in the EARCOS region. The findings of this limited study strongly suggest that the competence and qualifications of principals in the EARCOS region to evaluate teachers effectively and credibly may well be lacking and that any serious efforts to reform evaluation systems within these schools must place a premium on the proper and sufficient training of those who evaluate teaching staff.