TEACHER INVOLVEMENT IN SCHOOL-CONDUCTED NEEDS ASSESSMENTS - ISSUES OFDECISION-MAKING PROCESS AND VALIDITY

Little attention in the literature on stakeholder shared decision maki ng in program evaluations has been given to involving stakeholders in developing the process of decision making. If stakeholders are not ful ly involved in developing this process, decisions may be biased and le ad to invalid evaluation findings. In this article, the authors presen t a theoretical model suggesting how stakeholder involvement in establ ishing the process of decision making in school-conducted needs assess ments affects the validity of the selected needs, with validity define d as teacher agreement with the selection of needs. Using LISREL VII, the model was tested using teacher survey data. The findings show that teachers were not heavily involved in developing decision-making proc esses. However, they agreed with the selected needs, and their involve ment in developing the decision-making processes accounted for a subst antial portion of their agreement.