Journal of - Southern University New Orleans

84Journal of Urban Education: Focus on Enrichmentdue to the influence of department chairs atthe secondary level, which could reduce therelative importance of secondary principals.Both groups of teachers believed very stronglythat they get curriculum guides and goalsfor students. The elementary teachers heldthis belief a bit more strongly, and evaluatedit significantly more favorably. This attribute,therefore, made a larger positive contributionto the elementary teachers’ morale, than tothe morale of secondary teachers. The between-groupdifference might be due to thefact that these guides and goals were ‚inprocess‛ at the middle school (the majority ofsecondary teachers) and some had receivedinitial draft versions.The elementary teachers however did not believethey had access to useful technology,while the secondary teachers did. The elementaryteachers evaluated having access touseful technology more favorably than didsecondary teachers, resulting in a negativecontribution to elementary teachers’ morale.Possible influence of teachers’ perceptions of students.Given that student-teacher involvementis so much higher at the elementarylevel, is was not surprising that those teachersbelieved more strongly that they workedwith students, and they evaluated workingwith students more favorably, resulting inlarger positive contributions to their morale.Both groups of teachers believed very stronglythat their students have different personalitiesand opinions. The elementary teachersheld this belief a bit more strongly, and evaluatedit significantly more favorably. Thisattribute, therefore, made larger positive contributionsto the elementary teachers’ morale,than to the morale of secondary teachers.Given the body of research on parental involvementin education (e.g., Epstein, 1995)that shows parental involvement declining aschildren age, it was not surprising that secondaryteachers believed more strongly thattheir students’ parents are not involved ineducation. Both groups of teachers evaluatedthis attribute of non-involvement negatively,but the elementary teachers evaluated it morenegatively, and the attribute made a largernegative contribution to the elementaryteachers’ morale. The elementary teachersbelieved more strongly that they helped students,and they evaluated helping studentsmore favorably, resulting in a larger positivecontribution to their morale.Both groups believed to some extent that theyhad students who don’t care about learning,but the elementary teachers evaluated it thismore negatively than the secondary teachers,resulting in a larger negative contribution tothe elementary teachers’ morale. Both groupsof teachers strongly believed that they have‚aha‛ moments when students ‚get it,‛ butthe elementary teachers evaluated this somuch more favorably than the secondaryteachers, that the attribute made a larger positivecontribution to the elementary teachers’morale.CONCLUSIONThis pilot study found considerable evidencethat the implementation of NCLB in theseschools has had a detrimental effect on teachermorale. Overall, this effect is relatively minor,but is stronger for teachers of NCLBtestedsubjects, especially at the high schoollevel, and for less experienced teachers. Thisstudy also found that the theory was usefulfor investigating the attribute beliefs andevaluations that theoretically form morale.Further research using the theory is neededwith larger samples, more evenly distributedamong the three grade levels. Studies shouldalso be done in schools with populations withvarious ethnic groups (e.g., Hispanic students).Even more useful would be studies