Crowley, R. J. (1976). The Institutional Renewal Scale: An instrument to measure attitudes toward educational innovation. ERIC ED 156 678.
Comments: The nine-item IRS assesses attitudes toward innovations in educational settings.
Scale Construction: A panel of 48 secondary teachers rated the 20 items that were developed to decide item appropriateness.
Sample: A sample of 126 secondary teachers responded to the 20-item IRS. Based upon their responses, individual phi coefficients were computed. Eight items were deleted. The revised form was administered to 378 secondary school teachers.
Reliability: The coefficient of internal consistency was 0.82, but increased to 0.88 when three items were deleted (2, 6, and 7).
Validity: Concurrent validity was established by correlating the IRS with the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory (Cook, et al., 1951) and the Attitudes toward Education Scale (Kerlinger, 1968). In addition, a known-groups technique was also employed.
Factor Analysis: A normalized varimax rotation yielded two factors.
Data Analysis: Distribution of responses, dichotomized response categories, and discriminating power of items are reported. The results of a chi-square test for item discrimination are provided.
References
Cook, W. W., et al. (1951). Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. New York: Psychological Corporation. Kerlinger, R. N. (1968). Attitude toward Education Scale, VII. Unpublished manuscript.
Institutional Renewal Scale
1. I think that too much money is being spent on educational innovations when compared with the benefit that is being derived.
2. I am indifferent to the pros and cons about educational innovations but would not like to see my attitude become general.
3. There is a need to innovate but I do not find what I want in most current educational innovations.
4. I believe that educational innovation keeps alive what is best in education.
5. Most school professionals should become much more enthusiastic about educational innovation than they presently are.
6. School-wide emphasis on trying educational innovations should be a prominent characteristic of a school.
7. The educational innovations that gain acceptance seem to me to do so at the expense of equally valid techniques.
8. Most educational innovations suggest unlimited possibilities for schools.
9. In my opinion most educational innovations are a hindrance to a sound education because so many of them depend on exaggerated claims.
10. The appeal for the use of more educational innovations that are currently in use appears to me to be a response to fashion rather than to sober judgment.
11. School professionals should be willing to revise their beliefs and attitudes in order to accommodate more educa- tional innovations.
12. Experience with the process of innovating may well be worth the risks involved in innovating.
Scoring: Strongly Agree, Agree, Mildly Agree, Mildly Disagree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree.