Keywords

merit pay, student achievement, teacher effectiveness

Abstract

Federal, state, and local government agencies are promoting merit pay systems that are tied to student achievement. The main problem facing governments, school districts, and educators is that money is hard to come by in the current market and choosing where to spend merit pay monies to receive a maximum rate of return on the investment realized in increased student achievement is difficult to determine. This study did explore the student achievement results of third, fourth, and fifth grade state certified, graduate degreed, and National Board Certified teachers in Brevard and Seminole County Public Schools as compared to those of other teachers within and across these schools. The goal of this study was to determine the effectiveness of state certified, graduate degreed, and National Board Certified teachers. For this study teacher effectiveness was defined by their students' Lexile Framework for Reading scores from the 2008-2009 school year. The hypothesis is that the Lexile Framework for Reading data demonstrated that there was a statistically significant difference between the learning gains of the students between groups. Overall, the findings indicate that there was a statistically significant difference between the learning gains of the students between groups; however, that change could not be attributed to the factor of teacher category. Specific teacher education levels or certifications did not make any difference in the learning gains as measured by the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI), among 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students in Brevard or Seminole County Public Schools.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2010

Advisor

Murray, Kenneth

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

College

College of Education

Department

Educational Research, Technology, and Leadership

Degree Program

Education

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0003113

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0003113

Language

English

Release Date

May 2010

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

Included in

Education Commons

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