Public schools are one of the most important social institutions in the United States, yet they are faced by numerous challenges. One of these challenges arises out of the current emphasis on school and teacher accountability. There is little disagreement that schools and teachers should be of the utmost quality and instruct each student to the best of their ability. However, the current educational policy orientation, with its use of sanctions in "needs improvement" schools, appears to be drastically changing the nature of schools as workplaces. Given a persistent teacher attrition problem, there is an urgent need to examine the factors that affect the retention of high-quality teachers in the public school system. This study asserts that No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and accountability policy more broadly, is a crucial piece of this puzzle. Drawing on research in sociology of education, work and organizations, this project investigates how NCLB affects the teaching environment, teachers' career plans and job satisfaction, as well as the strategies used by educators and schools to manage these intense changes. To investigate these processes, the researcher turns to two sources of data. The statistical relationship between NCLB sanctions and school working conditions is analyzed using secondary survey data from ten school districts throughout Georgia. The researcher investigates the process and effects of policy implementation, and the strategies used to manage these changes, using in-depth interviews. To capture variation in educator experiences, interviews were conducted with teachers, principals, and district administrators in three schools at different NCLB sanctioning levels in a single Georgia school district.
This research makes significant contributions to both the field of sociology and society at large. Within the field, the project contributes to work within the sociology of education by developing a more complete understanding of the relationship between educational reform and educators' work experiences. It builds upon the work on schools as social organizations by extending theories of how organizations manage environmental demands to the school context. The project also contributes to the field by identifying the specific strategies used by educators to respond to policy mandates while negotiating their own internal work demands. The broader impacts of the study are threefold. First, investigating the relationship between accountability reform and educators' work experiences will clarify the unintended impacts of educational policy on the internal operations of schools and teacher career trajectories. This knowledge is vital if we hope to combat the growing teacher attrition problem. Second, disseminating the research findings to educators and administrators may facilitate the sharing of successful management strategies and strengthen the content of professional development. Third, developing a broad understanding of these dynamic and influential relationships builds a foundation for the development of public policy that more accurately accounts for the complexities of the teaching job.
