Date of Conferral

2018

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Steven D. Kriska

Abstract

High-stakes teacher evaluations (HSTEs) in public education influence millions of students and teachers across the U.S. Currently, there is a dearth of published quantitative research that shows the relation of HSTEs to teacher job satisfaction. The purpose of this quasiexperimental quantitative study was to determine if implementation of HSTEs in state of Hawaiʻi as part of the U.S. Department of Education's Race to the Top program initiative was related to teacher job satisfaction in public schools over time. A repeated measures analyses was conducted using archived teacher job satisfaction data from over 200 public schools in Hawaiʻi from 2009 to 2014, including data collected from 2 years before until 2 years after implementation of HSTEs. The theoretical framework used for the study was grounded in Herzberg's 2-factor theory of motivation. It was hypothesized that the implementation of HSTEs may have affected extrinsic hygiene factors such as wages, supervisory practices, and organizational policy relative to intrinsic motivational factors such as work achievement, recognition, and personal growth of teachers working in schools implementing the federal initiative. The most significant study finding was that both overall satisfaction and satisfaction with student achievement increased during the 2011-2012 implementation year and then fell below pre-implementation levels in the 2 years subsequent to implementation of HSTEs. This finding is discussed in the context of an increase in pay for public school teachers in Hawai'i during the post-implementation period. The results of this research may promote positive social change by highlighting the need for a focus on potential unintended consequences (i.e., possible negative effects on teacher job satisfaction) of federal education policies associated with HSTE systems.

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