Administrators' and teachers' perceptions of planned change

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate how planned change was perceived by administrators and teachers in nine West Texas school districts. A comprehensive review of the literature was made and ten factors most cited as essential to change projects were selected. The ten factors were: clear district goals, community involvement, organizational structure, process of change, personnel readiness, change agent, staff development, adequate support materials, and district renewal.

The ten factors were used to develop two, forty item Likert scale surveys for administrators and teachers on planned change and its application to the microcomputer. Surveys were mailed to administrators and teachers in selected West Texas school districts. Survey return rates were 73 percent for administrators and 64 percent for teachers. Survey reliability, as measured by the Cronbach coefficient alpha, was .90 for administrators and .76 for teachers. The administrator mean was 2.78 on the four-point Likert scale; the teacher mean was lower, 2.56.