Teacher Morale Does Matter
Healthy School Environments Help Create Positive School Cultures
Strong teacher morale, positive school cultures, and student learning go hand-in-hand. Principals need to help create a nurturing environment for students and teachers.
Student learning and teacher retention can all be tied to the level of teacher morale in a building. William White and Rita Stevens identified statistical relationships between teacher morale and student achievement test scores in reading in the article "Teacher Morale and Student Achievement" in Reading Improvement (1998). White and Stevens suggest that "teachers' attitudes toward classroom evaluation systems, as well as their perceptions of the functional behaviors of the principal, were the strongest predictors of students' achievements in reading."
Morale Continues to Be Problematic in Public Schools Across America
However, teacher morale continues to be a problem in schools across America. A 1996 report showed an alarming problem. David and Travis Henderson completed a survey of Texas teachers in the Educational Resource Information Center report “Texas Teachers, Moonlighting and Morale: 1980-1996” and found that 44% of the teachers were considering leaving the profession. This was a wake-up call for many districts that teacher morale needed more attention.
In a more recent 2006 study, Eric Hirsch, Scott Emerick, Keri Church, and Ed Fuller completed the North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey Interim Report. There was improvement in teacher morale. Overall, teacher-working conditions in North Carolina have improved and conditions are better than in other states. However, work in areas of teacher leadership, shared decision-making, better professional development, mentor support, and additional planning time are areas that need improvement for North Carolina teachers.
Healthy School Environments Equal Higher Teacher Morale
In Teacher Morale (1998) in the Educational Resource Information Center report, Linda Lumsden found that “when a healthy school environment exists and teacher morale is high, teachers feel good about each other and, at the same time, feel a sense of accomplishment from their jobs."
The principal’s ability to create a positive school culture is also important to a healthy school environment. Compliments, plaques, and one-time events are not enough. The morale of the building needs constant attention.
One Ohio School Created PAC to Bring Up Morale for Staff
The principals at Logan Hocking Middle School in Logan, Ohio helped to promote and support a staff organization called PAC or the Positive Atmosphere Committee. PAC has been stuffing the teacher mailboxes and email with wonderful treats and positive messages all year to raise the morale. The administrators and a few staff decided to give candy, time-off-teaching and planned carry-in dinners. In addition, a staff member is picked randomly for one period free from students each week.
Goodies That Bring Smiles to Teachers All Year Long
- Root beer floats on the first day of school
- Healthy snacks of granola
- Candy bags at Halloween
- Key chains made by the students for Christmas
- Blizzards in winter
- Chocolate kisses at Valentine’s Day
- Saint Patrick Day green milk shakes
- Plastic eggs stuffed with chocolate.
To fund the monthly gifts, PAC organized a penny drive. And, local businesses were willing to support PAC with donations of food or items.
