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.