Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

8-2007

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph. D.

Department (Legacy)

Department of Education

Committee Chair

Reio, Thomas George, Jr.

Author's Keywords

School climate; School culture; Teacher efficacy; Collective efficacy; Job satisfaction; Turnover; Year-round education

Subject

Schedules, School; Educational change; Teachers--Job satisfaction; Teacher turnover

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate the relationships between school climate, school culture, teacher efficacy, collective efficacy, teacher job satisfaction and intent to turnover in the context of year-round education (YRE) calendars. The research design of this study utilized an e-mail invitation to participate with a uniform resource locator (URL) embedded in the message to link participants to an internet-based questionnaire. The questionnaire was delivered to 1,254 teachers employed in nine participating school districts in Kentucky that operated on YRE school calendars. The response rate was 60%. Teachers ( N = 748) responded to an internet-based questionnaire consisting of six scales on the variables of school climate, school culture, teacher efficacy, collective efficacy, teacher job satisfaction and intent to turnover. An open-ended question from the internet based questionnaire was examined as qualitative support for the findings from the quantitative data. Quantitative analysis involved examining descriptive statistics and correlations among research variables at the teacher level. Data were analyzed using Pearson's r correlations, ANOVA and hierarchical regression analysis. The findings demonstrated overall statistically significant positive correlations with study variables. High to moderate statistically significant positive correlations were found between school climate, school culture; teacher efficacy, collective efficacy, teacher job satisfaction and teacher intent to turnover. After statistically controlling for demographic variables (ethnicity, gender, age, and years of YRE teaching experience, the addition of school climate subscale scores (collegial leadership, professional teacher behavior, achievement press, institutional vulnerability), school culture subscale scores (inquiry practice, teaching learning community and collective problem solving) into the second block of the regression equation resulted in an additional 16% of the variance; After statistically controlling for school climate subscale scores (collegial leadership, professional teacher behavior, achievement press, institutional vulnerability) , school culture subscale scores (inquiry practice, teaching learning community and collective problem solving), the addition of teacher efficacy subscale scores (student engagement, teacher instructional practices and classroom management) into the third block of the regression equation resulted in an additional 18% ( p < .05) of the variance; After statistically controlling for teacher efficacy subscale scores (student engagement, instructional practices and classroom management, the addition of collective competency subscale scores (group competence and task analysis) into the fourth block of the regression equation resulted in an additional 19% ( p < .05) of the variance; and finally, after statistically controlling for collective efficacy subscale scores (group competence and task analysis), the addition of teacher job satisfaction subscale score (teacher job satisfaction global) into the fifth block of the regression equation resulted in 38% variance being predicted in the regression equation, a large size effect. Overall, the Conceptual Framework Model for Teacher Intent to Turnover in a YRE Context explained 38% of the variance in the dependent variable teacher intent to turnover. The potential implications for theory and practice for school calendar designers and instructors are provided.

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