The effect of the implementation of a teacher incentive program in District XYZ: An evaluation case study
Gorham, Douglas W.
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/20989
Description
Title
The effect of the implementation of a teacher incentive program in District XYZ: An evaluation case study
Author(s)
Gorham, Douglas W.
Issue Date
1990
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Ward, James G.
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ed.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Education, Administration
Education, Teacher Training
Education, Social Sciences
Language
eng
Abstract
The publication of A Nation at Risk: The Imperative For Educational Reform in 1983 by the National Commission on Excellence in Education acted as a stimulant for educational reform. This national report placed added emphasis on school districts and classroom teachers. Several authors have expressed a great concern over the quality of today's classroom teachers. To this end teacher incentive programs have again evolved to attract and retain good classroom teachers. In the 1986-87 school year the Illinois State Board of Education funded four pilot teacher incentive programs in Carbondale, Dundee, Princeton, and Quincy. District XYZ's program was chosen based on a previous analysis of these four pilot programs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of the implementation of a teacher incentive program in a selected school district on teacher attraction, retention, job satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and to assess if the selected district's teacher incentive program was structured to gain teacher acceptance. A multiple method, single case study methodology was selected to provide a deep, thick description of District XYZ's teacher incentive program. Three sources of data were used: (a) a survey questionnaire administered to 399 faculty and administrators, (b) two sets of follow-up interviews with twelve interviews selected at random for the first set and six interviews with significant program participants for the second set, and (c) document analysis. Inductive analysis of the data occurred during and after data collection identifying patterns and explanations to the research variables. The conclusions from this study include no positive effect of District XYZ's incentive program on the research variables teacher attraction, teacher retention, and teacher job satisfaction. This conclusion does not imply that the incentive program is working against these variables. Rather, this conclusion is due to a larger concern over the basic needs of teaching and the lack of a majority of the faculty being involved in the program. An overall positive effect of District XYZ's incentive program was found for the research variables teacher intrinsic motivation, teacher extrinsic motivation, and teacher acceptance of the program's structure. This conclusion is due to the voluntary nature of the program, grants that encouraged interpersonal relationships, and significant teacher involvement in all phases of the program.
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