I began my career teaching agriculture in rural Arkansas and have used my own research as a tool to advance my career to the superintendency I serve now.
This study examined the commitment of teachers to Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC), a Common C... more This study examined the commitment of teachers to Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC), a Common Core reform effort in the State of Arkansas. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were adopted by the State of Arkansas in 2012 and were to be fully implemented in all public schools by 2015. The CCSS require a major shift in instructional practices among teachers, which causes much uncertainty as teachers’ roles and identities begin to change. Reforms like this create difficulty for school leaders who must develop teacher support and dedication to ‘top-down’ reform initiatives in their classrooms. Literature suggested that proper support from building and district leaders is needed to reduce the uncertainty caused by such changes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether perceived organizational support (POS), perceived environmental uncertainty (PEU), perceived principal support (PPS), and principal and teacher agreement on PPS, significantly influenced teachers’ affective commitment (AC), continuance commitment (CC), normative commitment (NC), and overall commitment (OC) to LDC. Furthermore, special attention was given to the mediating effects of principal and teacher agreement on PPS by exploring the relational change it caused between independent and dependent variables. The study adopted and modified previously developed and validated scales for the measurement of respective study variables. Surveys developed from these scales were distributed to all schools in the State that were using LDC as their CCSS reform initiative. Survey results from teachers and principals in 137 schools that voluntarily completed LDC training (n= 137 principals and 685 teachers) were included this study. A descriptive-correlational design was used to determine the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. The findings showed demographic covariates related to the tenure and educational levels of participants influenced OC; POS, PEU, PPS, and principal/teacher agreement on PPS explained a statistically significant 12% of the variance in AC; principal and teacher agreement on PPS mediated the significant relationships of the independent and dependent variables and had a very large effect size (η²=.74) on PPS. Furthermore, findings on principal and teacher agreement supported previous research on Self-other Agreement. It was concluded that garnering commitment to LDC was difficult among longer tenured teachers but more likely among teachers with advanced degrees. Also, principals should make themselves aware of teachers’ feelings about support and uncertainty to garner higher commitment from teachers.
This study examined the commitment of teachers to Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC), a Common C... more This study examined the commitment of teachers to Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC), a Common Core reform effort in the State of Arkansas. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were adopted by the State of Arkansas in 2012 and were to be fully implemented in all public schools by 2015. The CCSS require a major shift in instructional practices among teachers, which causes much uncertainty as teachers’ roles and identities begin to change. Reforms like this create difficulty for school leaders who must develop teacher support and dedication to ‘top-down’ reform initiatives in their classrooms. Literature suggested that proper support from building and district leaders is needed to reduce the uncertainty caused by such changes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether perceived organizational support (POS), perceived environmental uncertainty (PEU), perceived principal support (PPS), and principal and teacher agreement on PPS, significantly influenced teachers’ affective commitment (AC), continuance commitment (CC), normative commitment (NC), and overall commitment (OC) to LDC. Furthermore, special attention was given to the mediating effects of principal and teacher agreement on PPS by exploring the relational change it caused between independent and dependent variables. The study adopted and modified previously developed and validated scales for the measurement of respective study variables. Surveys developed from these scales were distributed to all schools in the State that were using LDC as their CCSS reform initiative. Survey results from teachers and principals in 137 schools that voluntarily completed LDC training (n= 137 principals and 685 teachers) were included this study. A descriptive-correlational design was used to determine the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. The findings showed demographic covariates related to the tenure and educational levels of participants influenced OC; POS, PEU, PPS, and principal/teacher agreement on PPS explained a statistically significant 12% of the variance in AC; principal and teacher agreement on PPS mediated the significant relationships of the independent and dependent variables and had a very large effect size (η²=.74) on PPS. Furthermore, findings on principal and teacher agreement supported previous research on Self-other Agreement. It was concluded that garnering commitment to LDC was difficult among longer tenured teachers but more likely among teachers with advanced degrees. Also, principals should make themselves aware of teachers’ feelings about support and uncertainty to garner higher commitment from teachers.
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