School Restructuring and Employee Morale: Unintended Consequences of Involuntary Transfers

Abstract

This study examined the morale of fifteen teachers in a Mid Atlantic State Public School System after the implementation of restructuring per the corrective action continuum mandated by the No Child Left Behind federal legislation. Per the legislation, schools which fail to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for six consecutive years were required to select one of the suggested school restructuring options. These options were: replace most of the school personnel, including the principal; convert the school in to a charter school; release the control of the school to the state department of education; or contract the services of an outside agency to operate the school. The participants in this case study consisted of fifteen faculty members; five faculty members who remained at the study school, five faculty members who were displaced from the study school and five turnaround teachers who were newly assigned to the study school. As qualitative studies focus on `How' and `Why' questions, it was appropriate to utilize this type of framework as the researcher identified and explored how the morale of the faculty changed after the implementation of the restructuring process. The results of this study show only one of 15 of the study participants expressed that the implementation of the restructuring at the two study schools yielded a positive change in faculty morale. On the contrary, 14 of 15 study participants felt the restructuring process, as carried out in both study schools, had a negative impact on employee morale. Additionally, study participants indicted both study schools as having more of a positive climate prior to the implementation of restructuring as all of the interviewed subjects reported the restructuring process negatively impacted the student body, their parents and the entire school community.