Comparison of Teacher Motivation for Mathematics and Special Educators in Middle Schools That Have and Have Not Achieved AYP

Mathematics and special educators who taught in middle schools that had or had not made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) were surveyed to compare their motivation across three domains on a Teacher Motivation Survey: Work Environment, Professional Identity, and Career Satisfaction. Educators from schools who had met AYP reported a significantly better Work Environment, also referred to as collective efficacy, than that of educators from schools that had not met AYP. There were no statistically significant differences for special or mathematics educators, whether from a school that had or had not met AYP. Other results from the Teacher Motivation Survey are presented, including qualitative analyses from open-ended queries in the survey. Implications for expanding this research as well as more immediate applications and actions for school administrators are noted. 1. Introduction The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) [1] in the United States of America set in motion a series of comprehensive actions based on, among other factors, students’ performances on state assessments. Although NCLB requirements were initially instigated by the Bush administration and subsequent flexibility options available via the Obama administration, requirements for assessing students, disaggregating scores by specific subgroups of students, and annual testing with public reporting have remained in place. As a result, once a year, students across the United States (USA) participate in their state’s assessments and, based on a given year’s scores or in comparison to previous year’s scores [2] as well as other state-specific individually-determined criteria, schools either achieve Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) or not. Although there is variation among the states about assessment content (e.g., what skills in reading? What skills in mathematics?), the goal across states is to have students achieve at or above predetermined proficient levels (i.e., “pass” the test). Whether a school achieves AYP or not has implications for instructional decisions for the upcoming year. When analyzing AYP data, administrators and educators determine curricular areas and student populations where continued work is needed in order to meet AYP criteria for the following year. Conversely, for schools who have met AYP criteria, school personnel focus more on continued achievement for students versus feeling more public pressure to increase the likelihood students will “make AYP” the next school year. While NCLB has evolved under the leadership of the current administration (e.g., [2, 3]), the