We combined a statewide survey of school working conditions (MassTeLLS) with demographic and student achievement data from Massachusetts and examined three primary outcomes: teacher satisfaction, teacher career intentions, and student achievement growth.
We found:
(1) that measures of the school environment explain away much of the apparent relationship between teacher satisfaction with their school and student demographic characteristics;
(2) that teachers are more satisfied and plan to stay longer in schools that have a positive work context, independent of the school’s student demographic characteristics;
(3) that the working conditions that predominate in predicting teachers’ job satisfaction and career plans are the social—the school’s culture, the principal’s leadership, and relationships with colleagues; and
(4) that favorable conditions of work predict higher rates of student academic growth, even when we compare schools serving demographically similar groups of students.
This work is available in Teachers College Record, October, 2012, 114(10), 1 – 39.