Low staff morale results from professional lives that have little meaning; from frustration and the inability to change what is happening; and from muddled goals and demands exceeding scarce resources. Schools with high staff morale have very distinctive features, including a sense of community. Factors determining high morale are: (1) input into…

Considerable research has been conducted into teacher retention. Less is known of ex-teachers' circumstances: salary, workload, working conditions, "job prestige". For this study, telephone interviews were used to ask 21 ex-teachers about their journey from teaching, and views on their current working conditions by comparison. This paper…

Teachers of students with emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) find that myriad concerns for effective teaching (e.g., salaries, increased paperwork, classroom management) challenge their ability to meet personal and professional needs. The push for certified teachers and limited training to work with students with special needs create stressors…

The present study was designed to investigate the teacher and student morale in two schools, one with and one without obvious problems. The research focuses on (1) staff feelings about coworkers and supervisors, and staff satisfaction with the degree of participation and recognition received from work; (2) student feelings about teachers, student…

Describes a two year pilot program which made a significant step toward improving academics, morale, and student/parent involvement which helped a Florida junior high school earn national recognition. (MD)

As schools expand secularization and laws limiting religious expression increase, one must not forget the religious spirituality of the individual. Individual religious spirituality is still protected under the United States Constitution. Many researchers feel that this religious spirituality should be nurtured, not discouraged in public schools.…

The competitiveness of National Collegiate Association (NCAA) schools increases in intensity each year. With the increased pressure on college sport staffs to be undefeated season after season, coaches have to find ways to keep players happy; to do this, they have to find factors that contribute to unify the players. It is nearly impossible to…

This paper examines the morale of beginning secondary science teachers who attended one of three types of teacher preparation programs: (1) traditional undergraduate, (2) post-baccalaureate certification, or (3) alternative route to certification. One-hundred one secondary science teachers (grades 7-12) who were completing their second year in a…

The U.S. charter school movement has expanded rapidly, but this growth is geographically uneven at the school district level. Focusing on Arizona--which has the least restrictive charter school law in the United States--we use district variables to determine the factors driving charter market share in 41 districts. Included in our analysis is an…

The purpose of this research was to study the effects of the emphasis on achieving Adequate Yearly Progress at elementary schools under the regulations of the No Child Left Behind legislation. Qualitative data were gathered through interviews with fifty educators: forty-three teachers and seven administrators. All of the educators worked at six…

High-stakes testing is one of the most controversial issues in American education. Advocates contend that these tests encourage students to work harder, provide teachers with a stronger understanding of students' strengths and weaknesses, and allow educators to target failing schools for extra help. Critics claim that they narrow and distort the…

As anyone who has ever defended a thesis or been on a tenure track must know, American institutions of higher education have rigorous and finely calibrated ways of according respect to those who work in them. What they do not have enough of is respect from those beyond their gates. The author argues that the system that created the two-tiered…

A Massachusetts school faced with low teacher and student morale as a result of severe budget cuts initiated a year-long competitive program to improve school morale. The program was successful and virtually cost-free. (MD)

In recent years, "cheating" becomes a prevalent social phenomenon among the university students, which result in a bad influence to the quality of higher education, to the healthy growth of the university students, and to the social morale. To solve this problem, the key is to scoop out the root reason and get rid of it thoroughly. The emergence…

This article reports on the outcomes from an initial study to explore the job satisfaction of academics in the light of changes in higher education in the UK. The study is placed in relation to attendant concerns that the job satisfaction, motivation and morale of academic staff may be being tested. A questionnaire and semi-structured interviews…