Journal of - Southern University New Orleans

82Journal of Urban Education: Focus on Enrichmentstrongly that most of the attributes were partof their work, although the 44 secondaryteachers believed more strongly in seven ofthe attributes. The secondary teachers evaluatedthe attributes more favorably, than thesecondary teachers, except on nine attributes.T 2 tests determined that there were significant(p < .001) overall differences between thegroups and t-tests examined the significanceof differences on individual items. Therewere five significant between-group differenceson belief strength, and the differenceapproached significance on a sixth. Therewere nine significant between-group differenceson evaluation, and the difference approachedsignificance on a tenth. The 11attributes on which there were significant between-groupdifferences, are discussed below(The size of many of the non-significant differencessuggests that a larger sample of elementaryteachers might have yielded moresignificant between-group differences). Theresults reported below are divided into threeareas: (a) Possible Influence of NCLB, (b)Possible Influence of School, and (c) PossibleInfluence of Teachers’ Perceptions of Students.Possible influence of NCLB. Surprisingly theelementary teachers believed more strongly,than secondary teachers, that they felt thepressure of state mandated testing and theyevaluated this attribute much more unfavorably,as reported in Table 5 below. This resultedin a negative contribution to their morale.Three factors might have influenced thisresult. First, the central goal of elementaryteachers is the self-actualization of their students,rather than content delivery which isthe goal of secondary teachers (Pryor, Sloan,& Amobi, 2007). Second, teachers at the elementarylevel perceive themselves as primarilyresponsible for poor test results, whilesecondary teachers perceive the students asprimarily responsible. Third, secondaryteachers have long been accustomed to highstakes testing (e.g., for college entrance applications,AP course credit, ability to participatein extra-curricular activities), althoughuntil NCLB, the results of low test scores redoundedto students, rather than teachers.Elementary teachers are more used to usingtests as formative assessments, to determinehow well students are learning.Table 4: Differences between Experienced Secondary Teachers and Other Secondary TeachersExperienced(n = 37)Other(n = 11)Variable Mean SD Mean SDBelief that NCLB has had positive effect on teachingand learning in my school -0.49 1.82 -1.55 0.82*My morale five years ago 2.14 1.25 NA NAMy morale now 1.59 1.79 0.27 1.27*Years of teaching experience: current grade 8.89 6.36 2.73 1.01**Years of teaching experience: other grades 2.37 2.58 0.45 0.82**Years of teaching experience: total 11.27 5.94 3.18 0.60**Note. Experienced teachers were those with five or more years’ experience. Differences between means were significant as indicated. * p< .05; ** p < .01