Do “Older” Public Secondary Schools Predict Better Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development Scores in Kenya?

Abstract

This paper contributes empirical research evidence on the association between school age (years since inception) and Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD) grades in public secondary schools in Kenya’s Kakamega North subcounty. Multivariate multiple regression was employed using data collected from schools to model the effect of school age on TPAD grades (2016–2019). This is suitable modelling for multiple outcome variables (TPAD scores from 2016–2019) with multiple explanatory variables. Controlling for school type, with boarding schools coded as 1 (reference category), mixed day as 2, and mixed day/boarding as 3, the results suggest that an additional year since the establishment of a school is associated with an increase of 0.23 per cent in the TPAD score for 2019 (p = .048), while the results for the other years are statistically insignificant. Policy implications from the results are discussed.