Journal of - Southern University New Orleans

76Journal of Urban Education: Focus on EnrichmentAchievement Exam (PSAE) is given to 11thgrade high school students only. It consistsof the ACT test and Prairie State Exam.In Illinois, 435 schools have been classified asbeing in Academic Early Warning Status(AEWS) for not making Adequate YearlyProgress (AYP) for two consecutive years onstate standardized tests according to the IllinoisInteractive Report Card (Northern IllinoisUniversity, 2007). The number of schoolslabeled as being in Academic Watch Status(AWS) and failing to make AYP for four ormore years is 516 (Northern Illinois University,2007). These schools are targeted for additionalstate sanctions. The majority of schoolsnot making AYP are located in urban areas inIllinois.STUDY RESEARCH QUESTIONSTwo central questions guided the study: (a)what is the state of urban teachers’ morale, inAYP and non-AYP schools? and (b) is thereany evidence that morale has changed sincethe implementation of NCLB? Subsidiaryquestions were also of interest, such as whatdifferences in teacher morale might be foundbetween different grade levels, between differentlevels of experience, and betweenteachers of NCLB-tested courses and otherteachers. A final question of interest waswhat beliefs about their work might determineteachers’ morale?that mention both teacher morale and NCLBalmost universally assert a negative effect ofthe latter on the former. Million (2005), forexample, asserted that NCLB is not a dailycause of unhappiness, but that it is capable oftaking its toll on morale. Although manyteachers are working harder than they haveever worked before, and they see studentsmaking progress; it's possible that theirschools are not making AYP under NCLB.More recently, Protheroe (2006) concurredthat high-stakes testing and accountabilitymake teacher morale a problem in someschools.One study was found that presents an interestingmethodological challenge to Americanresearchers. In the United Kingdom, Rhodes,Nevill, and Allen (2004) investigated teachers’job satisfaction, dissatisfaction, morale,and facets of professional experience likely tolead to retention or exit from the professionwithin five years. It was undertaken in aschool which had experienced difficulty inrecruiting and retaining teachers.This mixed methods study had both qualitativeand quantitative stages. First focus groupinterviews were conducted to elicit aspects ofprofessional experience likely to affect jobsatisfaction or dissatisfaction. Second the fortyaspects elicited were included in a in awritten questionnaire. Accepting this challenge,we used a two-stage mixed methodsapproach in our study.TEACHER MORALESTUDY DEFINITIONS OF MORALEAlthough a considerable amount has beenwritten about teacher morale, most of thesejournal articles appear to be opinion piecesand program descriptions; few are works ofempirical research. 1 The non-empirical works1This assertion is based on an online search of journal articlesin the ERIC database. The first search used ‚teacher,‛ ‚morale,‛and ‚NCLB‛ as descriptors and two articles were found,The conceptual definition of morale wasdrawn from Merriam-Webster: ‚2 a: the mentaland emotional condition . . . of an individneitherof which was a study. The second search used ‚teacher,‛‚morale,‛ and ‚testing‛ as descriptors and three articleswere found, none of which was a study. The third search waslimited to ‚teacher,‛ and ‚morale‛ as descriptors, and 63 articleswere found, the great majority of which were not studies.