Public School Accountability, School Working Conditions, and Teacher Morale

• In Event: 3429 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 21. K-12 Teachers and Administration

Abstract

Although the No Child Left Behind Act, the most far-reaching and ambitious school reform legislation in the past 50 years, was officially retired in 2015 with the passage of the ESSA, scholars still have much to do to uncover the ways it impacted students, teachers, schools, and communities. This paper hypothesizes that NCLB accountability pressures broadly hurt teacher morale in public schools, specifically their job satisfaction and school commitment. We find support for this hypothesis in a national sample of teachers in 2011-12, during the height of the NCLB era. The analyses attempt to identify the school working conditions that are the most likely mechanisms through which these pressures diminish teacher morale, and staff relationships of trust and shared values appear to be most critical in this regard. Counter to past research, a strong school culture of trust and shared values does not buffer teachers from the ill effects of negative workplace conditions in the form of accountability pressures. We conclude that the NCLB accountability reforms partly undermined the legislation’s stated aims of improving performance and equity in public schools by sowing seeds of teacher dissatisfaction and contributing to teacher turnover, thus thwarting student achievement in struggling schools.

Authors

• Kristen Erichsen, Florida State University

• John Reynolds, Florida State University