Effects of Teacher Quality Appraisal Scores on Students' Academic Achievement in Secondary Schools in Baringo North Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Stakeholders from various sectors in Baringo North Sub County, Kenya while attending a conference raised the concern over the possible cause of the downward trend in KCSE performance in Sub County. This was against a backdrop of the Teachers Service Commission in Kenya reporting improving teacher quality following introduction of Teachers Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD) system in 2016. In the absence of empirical data, this study sought to establish if teacher quality as expressed by TPAD score had an effect on student academic achievement as expressed by KCSE performance in Baringo North. Guided by Lev Vygotsky's Socio-cultural theory, this study used quantitative descriptive survey incorporating ex-post facto correlation design. Stratified simple random sampling was employed to arrive at a sample size of 174 comprising of principals, deputy principals and assistant teachers drawn from a target population of 306. Primary data was collected using questionnaires. A pilot study was conducted where test retest method was applied that returned a Pearson's product correlation coefficient (r ^xy = 0.85) on the principals and deputy principals' questionnaire and r ^xy = 0.87 on the teacher's questionnaire. Data collected was analysed and hypothesis tested whereby the results revealed a statistically significant difference between the teacher quality and student academic achievement {F (27, 57) = 3.038, p = .000}. No significance difference between teacher characteristics and teacher quality i.e. gender (t₈₈= -.835, p >.05); age, F (3, 86) = 1.714, p> 0.05; academic qualification F (1, 88) = 1.049, p> 0.05; teaching experience F (5, 84) = 1.88, p> 0.05. For school characteristics and teacher quality, there was no significant difference between school category and teacher quality (F (2, 87) = 2.76, p> .05) and school type and teacher quality (F (2, 87) = 2.622, p> 0.05). however, there was a significant difference between gender of students and teacher quality (F (2, 87) = 11.992, p =0.000). The study concluded that teacher quality as reflected by the TPAD scores awarded to teachers in Baringo North had an effect on academic achievement of candidates in the national examinations. Consequently, it recommended that proper mechanism be adopted to ensure the high TPAD scores assigned to teachers reflect in KCSE results attained by learners. The study further recommends that stakeholders seek to have more single sex schools as gender of students seemed to have an effect on teacher quality and consequently on student achievement.