Abstract:
Over the past 30 years, federal and state initiatives designed to improve schools have created several unintended, negative consequences. Educational experts have produced studies that link these initiatives to declines in teacher job satisfaction or quality of work life, decreased teacher retention rates, and the potential development of adversarial relationships between teachers and administrators (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Loeb, Darling-Hammond, & Luczak, 2005; Newman, 2006). The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of the FranklinCovey Leader in Me Program’s effect at an identified, Title I school in Georgia that implemented the program as a means of school reform and improvement to determine its impact on: (1) teachers’ lives and career experiences, (2) quality of work life, and (3) relationships between teachers and administrators. Data were obtained through observations, document analysis, and interviews with five carefully selected faculty members who received the training provided by FranklinCovey Leader in Me Program. A constructivist epistemology was used to synthesize collected data to create meaning.
Findings indicated faculty and administrators established strong interpersonal relationships with each other and created a school family. Participants expressed they shared a common language and students and faculty were empowered to develop leadership roles and pursue opportunities for growth. Additionally, over a five-year period teacher attrition was less than one percent. Since this study primarily focused on data collected from teachers, recommendations for further research include conducting a longitudinal study to monitor the progress of the program over time and to conduct research with administrators, students, and other stakeholders.