Teachers’ sense of responsibility for educational outcomes. A study on the measurement properties of the Teacher Responsibility Scale in Italian primary and secondary school teachers

The study explored the measurement properties of an Italian translation of the Teacher Responsibility Scale (TRS) in a sample of primary and secondary school teachers (N = 506). The instrument, based on a multidimensional model of teacher’s responsibility, includes four subscales assessing responsibility for student motivation, student achievement, relationships with students, and teaching. Results from a series of Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) support the hypothesized four-factor structure of the back-translated version of the TRS, with adequate reliability for all subscales, and the metric invariance of the TRS for primary and middle school teachers compared to high school teachers. The Italian TRS appears to be a reliable and valid instrument to assess teachers’ personal responsibility for educational outcomes, both in basic and applied research in teacher evaluation, as well as in the internal school evaluation processes.