Date of Award
1-1-1986
Document Type
Practicum
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Center for the Advancement of Education
Keywords
administrators classroom evaluations, attitude survey, florida, master teacher plan, merit pay, meritorious teachers, sheridan vocational-technical center, state of florida, subject matter exams, vocational teachers
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate vocational teachers attitude about merit pay. The State of Florida, in an attempt to improve the quality of education, implemented in 1984 what is known as the Master Teacher Plan. The problem was that, because of hasty implementation, frequent last-minute revisions, and bureaucratic mix-ups, there was little teacher support for the plan. An attitude survey of 72 teachers at Sheridan vocational-Technical Center was conducted for the purpose of providing the State, through the director of that center with information that could contribute to improved implementation of the plan when it is revised.
An hypothesis was that there would be a major difference in attitude between teachers who applied for merit pay and those who did not.
A sixteen-item survey was distributed to all full-time teachers. Each as coded ad to whether the person applied for merit pay or did not apply for merit pay.
The results of the study indicate no major difference in attitude between teachers who applied for merit pay and those who did not. Furthermore, the results indicated that there was high resistance to merit pay. In spite of these negative attitude, 50 percent of those eligible did indeed apply for the award.
The results implied that teachers, when given a generous incentive, will accept a merit pay plan. Another implication derived from the study was that teachers perceived the current structure of the plan to be unacceptable.
The recommendations was that the criteria and strategies for selecting Master Teachers be revised to include means of selecting meritorious teachers others than subject matter exams and administrators classroom evaluations.