Date of Award

Fall 12-1-2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in School Leadership

Department

Center for Leadership & Learning

College

College of Education

Committee Chair

Dr. John Freeman

Second Committee Member

Dr. Ellen Treadway

Third Committee Member

Dr. Tony Prothro

Dean of Graduate College

Dr. Mary B. Gunter

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in teachers’ level of self-efficacy based on the state takeover status of a school district. The design of this study was “group comparison research” (Gall, Gall, & Borg, 2015). The dependent variable was teachers’ level of self-efficacy and the independent variable was state takeover status. Data gathered for this study were teacher demographics and the level of teacher self-efficacy measured by the TSES instrument (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001). Three school districts in Arkansas were selected and matched on demographic variables and school academic measures. One district had recently been released from state takeover, one district was under the threat of state takeover and another district was performing at a slightly higher level but was not under the threat of state takeover. A total of 146 teachers across the three districts completed the survey. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data and to answer the research questions. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the differences in the teacher’s sense of self-efficacy among the three school districts in three efficacy domains; student engagement, instructional strategies, and classroom management. Results indicated that there were differences in the level of teacher self-efficacy among the three districts, but only in the domains of instructional strategies and classroom management. A Tukey HSD post hoc test was used to determine where the differences existed in the districts. In both domains, the differences were found to be between the district under threat of state takeover and the district that was not under threat of state takeover. The teachers in the district under threat of state takeover had a higher mean level of self-efficacy. The district that had actually undergone state takeover did not indicate a difference in self-efficacy with the other two districts. The implications from this particular study were that state takeover status in a district does not have a deleterious effect on the level of teacher self-efficacy. For one district it appears that the threat of state takeover may have actually had a positive effect on the level of teacher self-efficacy.

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