Teacher Attitude Inventory

Abstract

The Teacher Attitude Inventory (TAI) is an organizational psychometric instrument developed by Catherine H. Glascock (1996) at Louisiana State University designed to evaluate educators' perceptions of the administrative dyad between their school principal and the district superintendent. Recognizing that institutional climate, resource acquisition, and school-level autonomy are deeply contingent on administrative relationships, the TAI provides empirical measurement of how teachers observe upward influence, leadership independence, and hierarchical coupling within public school systems. The scale originally comprised 14 Likert-type items reflecting scenarios across instructional leadership, budgetary control, curriculum modification, personnel allocation, and external conflict management. Psychometric evaluations across two independent multi-stage samples—Study 1 ($N = 252$ teachers across five elementary and three high schools) and Study 2 ($N = 270$ teachers across 19 elementary and seven high schools)—indicated that a hypothesized two-factor structure (autonomy/independence and upward influence) collapsed into an 8-item unidimensional scale. With items 1 through 5 and item 7 removed, the refined 8-item instrument (encompassing items 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14) demonstrated robust internal consistency, yielding Cronbach's alpha coefficients of .77 in Study 1 and .78 in Study 2, accounting for approximately 31% of the total variance across both cohorts. The response structure utilizes a 5-point Likert scale ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree, supplemented by an explicit 'No Opinion' anchor assigned a score of zero. Content validity was rigorously confirmed through iterative expert panel reviews across three distinct evaluations. The TAI remains a valuable tool in educational administration, sociological research on organizational behavior, and school climate diagnostics, serving as an index of perceived administrative effectiveness, boundary-spanning capacity, and district-level power dynamics.

Keywords

Teacher Attitude Inventory, principal-superintendent relationship, educational administration, school climate, perceived leadership influence, organizational coupling, administrative hierarchy, psychometrics, educational leadership, social exchange theory

Authors

The Teacher Attitude Inventory was developed by Catherine H. Glascock, Ph.D.

• Primary Author: Catherine H. Glascock, Ph.D.
• Institutional Affiliation at Inception: College of Education, Department of Educational Leadership and Research, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.
• Subsequent Affiliations: Dr. Glascock has held academic faculty and leadership appointments in educational administration and leadership studies at various institutions, including Ohio University and the University of Wyoming.
• Focus of Scholarship: Organizational health of schools, educational facilities, administrative governance, school climate metrics, and resource distribution dynamics within K-12 systems.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Teacher Attitude Inventory (TAI) is to systematically measure how classroom teachers perceive the interpersonal, managerial, and political working relationship between their building principal and the district superintendent. While traditional educational leadership instrumentation often examines principal behaviors in direct isolation—focusing exclusively on teacher-principal interactions or classroom observation protocols—the TAI was conceptualized to address a critical theoretical gap: the vertical coupling between building-level administrators and district-level executives, and how this dynamic is observed by the instructional staff.

In public educational systems, the principal acts as a boundary spanner. They must translate district mandates into building-level practices while simultaneously advocating for their school's instructional staff, technological infrastructure, and operational autonomy. When teachers perceive that their principal possesses high upward influence and maintains an amicable, productive relationship with the central office, instructional morale, collective efficacy, and perceived institutional support increase. Conversely, when teachers perceive their principal as powerless, micro-managed, or disregarded by the superintendent, the school environment frequently exhibits cynicism, organizational paralysis, and alienation.

The TAI serves several practical and scholarly functions:

• Diagnostic School Climate Assessment: Serves as a diagnostic sub-metric within comprehensive institutional evaluations, helping school districts identify misalignments between central office administration and individual campus leadership.
• Leadership Training and Professional Development: Assesses how changes in district leadership or principal communication styles influence school-level perceptions of managerial efficacy and advocacy.
• Sociological and Organizational Research: Facilitates empirical studies testing structural equation models linking administrative coupling, social exchange mechanisms, teacher job satisfaction, and student achievement metrics.
• Organizational Restructuring Evaluation: Gauges the perceived locus of control and administrative decentralization following site-based management reforms or structural policy changes.

Psychological Construct

The Teacher Attitude Inventory assesses the generalized psychological construct of Perceived Principal-Superintendent Working Relationship, specifically operationalized through the lens of downward teacher observations. Originally conceptualized around two theoretical pillars—administrative independence and upward influence—subsequent empirical psychometric work demonstrated that teachers conceptualize these behaviors through a coherent, unidimensional perspective of executive advocacy and alignment.

Upward Influence and Persuasive Efficacy

Upward influence reflects the principal's capacity to negotiate with, convince, and alter the behavioral outcomes of the superintendent. In bureaucratic educational organizations, superintendents control essential capital, including discretionary budgets, specialized personnel lines, technology grants, and curricular flexibility. Principals who possess high upward influence can successfully appeal central office decisions, acquire advanced technology (e.g., computers, instructional hardware), and secure permission for teachers to implement innovative, non-standard pedagogical methodologies. In the TAI, this dimension is embodied by items assessing the principal's ability to convince the superintendent to sanction new educational programs (Item 12) or fulfill specific instructional supply requests (Item 11).

Administrative Independence and Buffering

Administrative independence concerns the degree to which the campus principal operates autonomously from micro-management and acts as an organizational buffer against central office intrusion. Effective buffering protects classroom educators from external political disruptions and bureaucratic interruptions. When parents bypass building-level administrative procedures to register complaints directly with the central office, a vulnerable or dependent principal is typically overridden by the superintendent (Item 6). In contrast, an autonomous, respected principal is trusted by the superintendent to resolve site-based conflicts internally. Autonomy also manifests in policy adherence; an independent administrator modifies standard district operational guidelines when necessary to serve the immediate welfare of the local school environment without fear of administrative reprisal.

Resource Facilitation and Social Capital

A critical facet of the construct is perceived resource facilitation. Grounded in social exchange principles, teachers observe the concrete benefits delivered to their classrooms as direct reflections of their principal's standing with the superintendent. When basic resources (e.g., projectors, physical materials, adequate staffing) are readily procured, teachers attribute this organizational success to a functional, collaborative administrative dyad (Item 8). Conversely, consistent resource deficits and administrative rejections (Item 14) signal to teachers that their school leadership lacks relational capital at the district level.

Theoretical Framework

The conceptual foundation of the Teacher Attitude Inventory integrates several theoretical traditions within organizational sociology, organizational psychology, and educational administration.

Social Exchange Theory

A cornerstone of the TAI is Social Exchange Theory, particularly structural power-dependence formulations articulated by Linda Molm (1990). Molm's framework posits that power in social networks is an inherent property of structural mutual dependencies: an actor's power resides in their control over resources valued by another actor, balanced against the availability of alternative resource avenues. In educational hierarchies, the superintendent maintains structural dominance through control over fiscal allocations, personnel appointments, and tenure decisions. However, the principal contributes operational stability, community satisfaction, and curriculum implementation. The TAI operationalizes whether this exchange relationship is balanced or coercive. When the exchange is characterized by mutual trust and reciprocal support, the principal exercises informal power and upward influence, which teachers directly observe via tangible school-level benefits.

Loose Coupling Theory

The TAI also draws heavily upon Karl Weick's Loose Coupling Theory in educational organizations. Weick posits that educational institutions are rarely monolithic, tightly integrated machines; rather, they exist as loosely coupled systems where administrative structures are frequently decoupled from instructional technical cores. In tightly coupled districts, superintendents exert strict supervisory control over campus curricula, financial line items, and hiring choices. In loosely coupled environments, building administrators possess broad latitude to innovate and tailor policies to unique student populations. Glascock's inventory assesses the degree to which teachers perceive their campus as tightly coupled and subordinates to central directives versus operating with autonomous, site-based governance.

Boundary Spanning and Leadership Theory

The instrument incorporates administrative leadership models, specifically those developed by Hallinger et al. (1990), which examine how administrative context shapes instructional leadership behaviors. Principals do not lead in a vacuum; their capacity to foster an academically robust climate depends heavily on central office expectations, district sociopolitical stability, and discretionary funding. By evaluating the supervisory relationship above the principal, the TAI operationalizes boundary-spanning leadership: the leader's capacity to manage external environmental dependencies while safeguarding internal organizational functioning.

Validity

The psychometric validity of the Teacher Attitude Inventory was established through multi-stage methodological procedures during Dr. Glascock's foundational investigations, involving content, construct, and structural validation approaches.

Content and Face Validity

Content validity was evaluated using expert judgment protocols. Glascock convened a panel of six academic and administrative experts specializing in educational administration, psychometrics, and organizational behavior. This panel formally reviewed the instrument across at least three distinct developmental iterations. The expert reviewers analyzed item relevance, theoretical representation across administrative influence and independence domains, clarity of syntax, and potential semantic ambiguity. Items failing to achieve unanimous consensus regarding domain representation or showing redundant characteristics were modified or removed prior to initial field testing.

Construct and Structural Validity

Construct validation was systematically conducted across two independent, empirical investigations using a multi-staged sampling methodology across public school districts:

• Study 1 ($N = 252$): Administered to certified teachers across five elementary schools and three high schools. The primary objective was to examine latent dimensional structures and ascertain whether the hypothesized theoretical subscales (autonomy vs. influence) emerged as empirically discrete factors.
• Study 2 ($N = 270$): Administered across 19 elementary schools and seven high schools to cross-validate the factor analytic findings derived from the initial sample.

Exploratory factor analytic procedures demonstrated that the hypothesized two-factor structure was not psychometrically tenable. Instead, six items (Items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7) demonstrated severe psychometric attenuation, cross-loadings, or weak item-total correlations. These items primarily addressed decentralized operational mechanics (such as community fundraising, informal internal budgeting, and district-wide teacher transfer policies). Removing these items yielded a psychometrically robust, unidimensional 8-item scale (Items 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14). This 8-item structure demonstrated consistent construct validity across both study cohorts, demonstrating that teachers evaluate the principal-superintendent relationship as an integrated, holistic dimension of administrative support and upward advocacy.

Reliability

Reliability estimates for the Teacher Attitude Inventory were computed using classical test theory frameworks across both validation samples, specifically evaluating the internal consistency coefficients of the full and refined configurations.

Internal Consistency Across Validation Studies

Initial computations demonstrated that the full 14-item scale contained psychometric noise stemming from low-discriminating structural items. Once the six poorly performing items were excised, internal consistency coefficients met standard psychometric thresholds for institutional research instruments ($lpha ge .70$):

• Study 1 ($N = 252$): The refined 8-item unidimensional scale yielded a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .77. Item-total correlations for the retained items (6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14) were positive and statistically significant, confirming internal homogeneity.
• Study 2 ($N = 270$): In the cross-validation sample involving 26 distinct school environments, the identical 8-item scale yielded an internal consistency coefficient of .78.

The stability of the alpha coefficient across divergent school settings—ranging from rural elementary schools to complex comprehensive high schools—demonstrates solid score reliability. Standard error of measurement (SEM) indices derived from these studies support the instrument's precision when aggregated at the campus level to characterize shared faculty perceptions.

Factor Analysis

The latent structural integrity of the TAI was evaluated using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) across both independent research phases.

Hypothesized Two-Factor Model vs. Empirical Reality

The instrument was initially constructed under the theoretical premise of two correlated latent factors:

1. Administrative Independence: The degree of perceived autonomy the principal exercises without required superintendent consultation or central office interference.
2. Upward Influence: The principal's ability to persuade the superintendent to secure resources, sanction pedagogical innovations, and advocate for campus priorities.

However, when factor extraction protocols (principal axis factoring with orthogonal and oblique rotations) were executed, this two-factor solution failed to achieve adequate empirical separation. Items intended to measure procedural independence displayed unstable communalities, weak primary loadings, and extensive cross-loadings. Teachers did not clearly differentiate between a principal acting autonomously and a principal who influences the central office; rather, they viewed autonomy as a natural byproduct of successful upward influence and relational trust.

The 8-Item Unidimensional Solution

A systematic item-reduction strategy was implemented. Deleting items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 yielded a parsimonious, one-factor model consisting of 8 items:

• Variance Explained: In Study 1, this single-factor solution accounted for almost 31 percent (30.8%) of the total item variance. In Study 2, the cross-validation confirmed this latent structure, accounting for an almost identical 31 percent of the total common variance.
• Factor Loadings: The retained items loaded substantially onto this generalized factor. Items tapping perceived advocacy and direct inter-level persuasion—such as Item 10 (persuading the superintendent regarding instructional techniques), Item 11 (securing computer and technological hardware), and Item 12 (persuading the superintendent to support new programs)—exhibited the strongest factor loadings ($> .55$). Items addressing superintendent intervention during parental conflict (Item 6) and central office disregard of principal explanations (Item 9) loaded cleanly in the expected inverse direction.

Instrument / Measurement Tool

• Instrument Name: Teacher Attitude Inventory (TAI)
• Original Author: Catherine H. Glascock, Ph.D. (1996)
• Assessment Type: Self-report organizational climate survey / psychometric rating inventory
• Target Population: Certified elementary, middle, and secondary school classroom teachers
• Administration Format: Paper-and-pencil or digital survey administration; individual administration aggregated to school-level means
• Item Count:
  • Full Historical Form: 14 items
  • Psychometrically Validated Short Form: 8 items (retaining items 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14; items 1–5 and 7 deleted)
• Response Scale: 5-point Likert scale with an explicit zero-weight anchor:
  • 0 = No Opinion
  • 1 = Strongly Disagree
  • 2 = Disagree
  • 3 = Undecided / Neutral
  • 4 = Agree
  • 5 = Strongly Agree
• Scoring and Directionality Instructions:
  • Positively Phrased Items: Items 8, 10, 11, and 12 reflect high upward influence and healthy administrative relationships. They are scored directly as marked (e.g., Strongly Agree = 5, Strongly Disagree = 1).
  • Negatively Phrased Items (Reverse Scored): Items 6, 9, 13, and 14 reflect superintendent micro-management, disregard, or lack of support. In standard composite calculations, these items must be reverse-scored ($1 \leftrightarrow 5$, $2 \leftrightarrow 4$, $3 = 3$) so that higher composite values consistently denote positive administrative relationships.
  • Handling the 'No Opinion' Option: In the original Glascock scoring protocol, a response of 'No Opinion' received a score of zero (0). In contemporary psychometric practices, researchers often treat zero values as missing data or analyze them categorically to prevent artificially skewing mean interval estimations downward.
  • Interpretation: Higher cumulative or mean scores indicate that faculty observe high levels of independence, upward influence, collaborative trust, and mutual advocacy between the building principal and district superintendent. Low scores indicate perceptions of administrative marginalization, rigid bureaucratic constraints, and low principal advocacy.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Teacher Attitude Inventory was developed in 1996 as part of doctoral dissertation research conducted by Catherine H. Glascock at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. The original scale is published in the public academic domain via ProQuest Dissertations and institutional university archives:

• Publication Year: 1996
• Copyright & Usage Rights: The scale items, psychometric parameters, and factor analytic data were published for academic evaluation. Non-commercial educational researchers and institutional analysts typically utilize the inventory under fair use provisions for scholarly inquiry, provided appropriate academic attribution and citation are maintained.
• Commercial Applications: Commercial deployment, integration into fee-for-service school climate audits, or inclusion within proprietary diagnostic software platforms requires direct formal authorization and licensing agreements with the copyright holder.
• Contact and Acquisition: Inquiries regarding adaptation, longitudinal use, or current validation updates should be directed to Dr. Catherine H. Glascock via academic leadership departments or through Louisiana State University's Department of Educational Leadership and Research repository services.

References

• Glascock, C. H. (1996). Teachers’ perceptions of the principal/superintendent relationship and school climate: Do they correlate? [Doctoral dissertation, Louisiana State University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.
• Hallinger, P., Bickman, L., & Davis, K. (1990). What makes a difference in school context, principal leadership, and student achievement (NCEL Occasional Paper No. 3). National Center for Educational Leadership, Vanderbilt University. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED332353
• Molm, L. D. (1990). Structure, action, and outcomes: The dynamics of power in social exchange. American Sociological Review, 55(3), 427–447. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095764
• Okeafor, K. R., & Frere, R. M. (1992). Administrators’ confidence in teachers, leader consideration, and coupling in schools. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 25(4), 204–212.
• Smith, J. B., Maehr, M. L., & Midgley, C. (1992). Relationship between personal and contextual characteristics and principals’ administrative behaviors. The Journal of Educational Research, 86(2), 111–118. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.1992.9941147
• Weick, K. E. (1976). Educational organizations as loosely coupled systems. Administrative Science Quarterly, 21(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.2307/2391875
• Whaley, K. W., & Hegstrom, T. G. (1992). Perceptions of school principal communication effectiveness and teacher satisfaction on the job. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 24(4), 224–231.

13. Items of the Scale (Questionnaire)