Theses and Dissertations from UMD

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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Author: search.filters.author.Bovender, William Perry

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    Knowing What to Do: School Focus, Teacher Morale, and Teacher Turnover
    (2016) Bovender, William Perry; Miller, Matthew J; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study explored how schools’ focus – the collective perception among teachers of clarity and consistency regarding school goals, expectations, and priorities – related to schoolwide morale and school turnover rates. I examined the hypothesis that focus attenuates the deleterious effects of student misconduct on teacher morale and the contributory role of student misconduct leading to teacher turnover. In addition, I examined climate strength regarding perceptions school focus as an indicator of focus itself, as well a potential moderating effect of climate strength on the magnitude of school focus-school morale and school focus-turnover relationships. Data from a national sample of middle and high schools (N schools = 348, N teachers = 11,376) were analyzed using school-level multiple regression models. Schools with higher focus had significantly higher morale, independent of related perceptions of administrative leadership. No significant relationship was found between school focus and school turnover rates. The hypothesized moderating effect of focus on student misconduct and morale was not supported, though there was a significant indication that focus attenuated the positive relationship between student misconduct and turnover. Climate strength of school focus ratings significantly correlated with focus scores, but did not moderate relationships between focus and predicted outcomes. Findings suggest that school-level focus does represent a characteristic of schools that has a meaningful positive relationship with teacher morale but do not necessarily clarify how that relationship manifests in schools or if that relationship presents an avenue for intervention.
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    Organizational Focus as a Moderator of the Relation Between Student Externalizing Behavior and Teacher Job Satisfaction
    (2013) Bovender, William Perry; Gottfredson, Gary D; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Examined how schools' organizational focus affects teachers' job satisfaction and intent to stay in their jobs. Analyses considered both individual teacher perceptions of clarity and consistency regarding school goals, expectations, and priorities, as well as the aggregate of these teacher perceptions as a measure of schools' level of focus. The study examined the hypothesis that organizational focus attenuates the correlation of externalizing student behavior and teacher job satisfaction. Data from three years of county-wide (N schools = 45) teacher self-report surveys were examined using hierarchical linear modeling. Schools with higher focus had significantly higher job satisfaction, and individual teacher perceptions of school focus significantly predicted higher job satisfaction across all samples. Hypothesized attenuating interaction was found nonsignificant, suggesting teachers' individual perceptions of clarity in their schools' roles and expectations and perceptions of their students' behavior are more predictive of satisfaction than school-wide perspectives on either. Findings warrant further study of organizational focus as a potential school-level target for intervention.