The Team Functioning Scale: Evaluating and improving effectiveness of school teams

• TFS evaluates overall functioning of a team implementing a school improvement process.
• The 17 items render a total and 3 domain scores: structure, communication, and focus.
• Demonstrates high reliability with Cronbach's alpha .964 (domain alphas .843–.950).
• Reliable across 3 states where administered, with Cronbach's alphas of .960–.970.
• Supports continual improvement in team functioning as it is sensitive across time.

While there has been considerable research on team effectiveness in business, military and healthcare environments, there is a relative scarcity of research that examines characteristics of effective teams within a school. This study focuses on facilitating improvement of school teams with the Team Functioning Scale (TFS), a 17-item scale designed to capture and evaluate overall functioning of a team implementing a school improvement process. The TFS is a reliable and valid scale that measures how individual team members observe team functioning and supports continual improvement in team structure, focus, meaningful communication and shared decision-making, ideally resulting in higher-functioning teams with increased potential for effectiveness. The TFS is sensitive and responsive to change over time, indicating potential as a mechanism for improving teaming practices.