The College of Education announces the final Dissertation of

Farrah Cope

for the degree of Doctor of Education

May 2, 2017 at 10:00 am in 405 Ball Hall

Major Advisor: Duane Giannangelo, PhD

TEACHER EMPOWERMENT: THE INFLUENCES OF TEACHER EMPOWERMENT IN DECISION MAKING AND ITS RELATION TO TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL INTENTIONS, TEACHER SATISFACTION, AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this research was to determine if empowering teachers as decision makers truly influences teacher retention, teacher satisfaction, and student achievement. A secondary analysis of an existing set of survey data was performed. This study focused on a set of subtopics included in the original study and examined those three subtopics in relation to each other. This study applied more complex analytical techniques to answer questions that were given insufficient attention in previous studies. The secondary data were received directly from the New Teacher Center and are based on the TELL’s Teacher Leadership construct. The data were then merged with two other data sources published on the TDOE website. A higher percentage of “stayers” were found at elementary schools with lower percentages of minority students and students with disabilities. Teachers’ “leaving” is influenced by their being empowered to make decisions about administrative and especially pedagogical issues and is more characteristic in secondary rather than elementary schools. Regarding the relationship between teachers’ perceived empowerment with respect to making decisions about pedagogical and administrative issues at their school and their general satisfaction with their working conditions, both administrative and pedagogical empowerment make robust contributions to the level of satisfaction experienced at schools. In regard to the relationship between teachers’ perceived empowerment with respect to making decisions about pedagogical and administrative issues at their school and student proficiency, only administrative teacher empowerment was linked to higher levels of student proficiency in reading and mathematics at the lower and upper grades.