Research shows teacher influence in school decision-making is related to improving individual job satisfaction and professional commitment. However, few empirical studies investigate how different domains of school decision-making may have a distinct relationship with both individual teacher job satisfaction and professional commitment. Using the…

The purpose of this study is to identify different types of school leadership as perceived by teachers and to test the extent that these types predict teacher retention. School leadership varies by perception, context, and may influence a teacher's decision to leave their current school or the profession. Four statistically different types of…

Purpose: Using the collective leadership framework, this study examines (a) how principals perceive their own influence and that of other key stakeholders in various school decisions and (b) how principals' perceived influences of other stakeholders are associated with their own influence. Research Method/Approach: This study uses the nationally…

This study examines and compares the recruitment, employment, and retention of minority and nonminority school teachers over the past quarter century. The objective of the study is to empirically ground the debate over minority teacher shortages. The data analyzed are from the National Center for Education Statistics' nationally representative…

Purpose: Effective styles of principal leadership can help address multiple issues in struggling schools, such as low student achievement and high rates of teacher attrition. Although the literature has nominated certain "idealized" leadership styles as being more or less effective, such as transformational, instructional, and shared…

This brief summarizes the results from a study of the recruitment, employment, and retention of minority k-12 teachers. The study examines the extent and sources of the minority teacher shortage--the low proportion of minority teachers in comparison to the increasing numbers of minority students in the school system. Using the National Center for…

The teacher empowerment process emphasizes professional development and participation (i.e., increasing professional status, skills, knowledge and providing the opportunity to participate in decision-making); however, whether these efforts eventually lead to the realization of teacher power remains a critical concern, especially considering that…

School leadership has been shown to exert a positive but mostly indirect influence on school and student outcomes. Currently, there is great interest in how quality leadership preparation is related to leadership practice and improved teacher outcomes. The purpose of the study was to understand the moderating influence of leadership preparation on…

This dissertation presents a framework for investigating how school level phenomena may influence African-American teacher retention, attrition, and mobility in K-12 contexts. I argue that prevalent assumptions and inadequate data concerning the state of black educators have inhibited thorough investigation of minority employment trends in K-12…

This study examined differences in nine factors between a group of the highest-performing needs high schools (HPHN) and a group of the lowest performing high-needs (LPHN) high schools using teacher responses from a national dataset. The factors are: (1) shared mission and goals; (2) professional development; (3) collaboration among teachers (4)…