A study of the organizational characteristics of teacher aide programs deemed important by selected teachers and principals in thirty public school districts of Southeast Texas

Purpose. The major purpose in this study was to determine those characteristics of teacher aide programs deemed valuable and essential. The characteristics obtained were based on experiences and informed judgments of 260 selected teachers and principals from thirty public school districts, who had worked with teacher aides for a minimum of one year. Other purposes included: (1) a comparison of elementary principals' opinions with secondary principals' opinions regarding important identifiable characteristics of the teacher aide program, (2) a comparison of elementary teachers' opinions with secondary teachers' opinions regarding important identifiable characteristics of the teacher aide program, (3) a comparison of teachers' opinions with principals' opinions regarding important identifiable characteristics of the teacher aide program. Procedures. Opinionnaires were developed and mailed to 260 principals and teachers included in the population. Each opinionnaire contained six sections related to various aspects of the teacher aide program. One section of the opinionnaire contained ten questions regarding general information. The remaining five sections contained fifty statements with which participants could agree or disagree. Each statement constituted a characteristic which was relative to the section title. Each characteristic within each section was analyzed and deemed as either an important positive or important negative characteristic. A characteristic was deemed important when 60 percent of the combined responses from principals and teachers were in agreement or disagreement. Important characteristics were reported in the form of guidelines considered essential to the teacher aide program.