Assessing Teachers’ Classroom Management Competency: A Case Study of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System–Secondary

One popular observational instrument to evaluate teaching is the Classroom Assessment Scoring System–Secondary (CLASS-S). Yet, the secondary version of the CLASS poorly discriminates classroom management quality beyond identifying extremely chaotic classrooms with teachers’ scores clustering in the most positive ranges of effectiveness. Studies of adolescents’ perceptions of teachers’ classroom management practices, however, clearly suggest more nuance and complexity. Assuming this discrepancy between results (i.e., lack of differentiation vs. nuanced complexity) might be an artifact of this particular observational protocol rather than a reflection of reality, this study microanalyzed the source material influencing adolescent and adult evaluative assessments of classroom management, using transcripts generated from video viewing sessions. Comparisons between (a) adolescents’ indigenous interpretations, and (b) adults’ trained interpretations of CLASS-S classroom management instructional interactions suggest that adolescents view student engagement and positive climate as particularly relevant to assessments of classroom management, whereas the CLASS-S does not include these as dimensions of effective teaching assessed as part of the Classroom Organization domain.