In Jamaica, there are many sources of data that can provide an evaluation of teachers, students, and schools at the primary level. The NAP assessments of students at grades 3, 4, and 6 focus on academic outcomes in literacy, numeracy and primary level subjects such as science and social studies. The panel inspections conducted by the Ministry of Education and Culture allow for officials of the Ministry of Education to assess some aspects of the management and supervision of a school, as well as the performance of teachers in that school. While these two assessments provide useful information on the quality of teaching and learning in a school, these data are not always correlated with the management and supervisory aspects of the school.
Reform efforts in Jamaican education are funded mainly by international donor agencies who have an interest in how schools function and whether the programmes which they fund are likely to achieve the results envisaged. These donor agencies want to know whether the criteria used in the assess­ment are valid and whether one set of outcomes (e.g. student performance) is statistically related to another (e.g. teaching or management). Donor agencies such as the USAID give much credence to research as the basis for determining validity.