The commonly held notion that the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has eroded teacher job satisfaction and undermined job retention is off the mark, according to new 菠萝视频 research. A survey of 140,000 public school teachers yielded surprising results that may change public perception about this controversial reform, says lead investigator .
鈥淭he results of the study just don鈥檛 support the idea that No Child Left Behind has made teachers less satisfied with their jobs or less committed to staying in the teaching profession,鈥� says Grissom, assistant professor of public policy and education at of education and human development. 鈥淭his may be because, as our findings suggest, NCLB has had some negative impacts on teachers鈥� work lives, but also some positive ones鈥攚hich we don鈥檛 always think about鈥攖o balance them out.鈥�
Overall, the data showed that the implementation of NCLB did not undermine job satisfaction and commitment to the profession. In fact, the percentage of teachers who said they intended to remain in the profession until retirement actually increased by 12 percent.
The results of the study were published online June 10 in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, a peer-reviewed journal of the .
Grissom analyzed a nationally representative sample of 140,000 regular, full-time public school teachers from four waves of the National Center for Education Statistics鈥� Schools and Staffing Survey. He measured the impact of NCLB on teachers鈥� job demands, perceived autonomy, workplace support and job satisfaction. Two of the waves collected data during the 1993鈥�94 and 1999鈥�2000 academic years鈥攂efore NCLB鈥檚 implementation in 2002鈥�03鈥攚hile the other two did so during the 2003鈥�04 and 2007鈥�08 academic years.
Grissom, who partnered with researchers at Indiana University and University of Texas at Dallas to conduct the study, found that while some evidence suggests that NCLB鈥檚 accountability pressures reduced feelings of cooperation among teachers, its implementation also may have improved their sense of classroom autonomy and administrator support.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think you can discount the fact that teachers are resilient,鈥� Grissom explains. 鈥淭hey have come to expect policy change. Most of them got into teaching because they enjoy working with young people and want to make a difference in their lives. While for some teachers the mandates of NCLB were a distraction, the law didn鈥檛 fundamentally change that desire and ability to make a difference.鈥�
As NCLB implementation continues to undergo changes and Congress works to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 鈥渙ur research makes clear that administrators and policymakers can鈥檛 rely solely on conventional wisdom to evaluate a policy鈥檚 effect on teachers,鈥� Grissom says.
the full abstract of this study.