The No Child Left Behind Era and Teacher Job Satisfaction
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The Honors project is potentially the most valuable component of an Honors education. Typically Honors students choose to do their projects in their area of study, but some will pick a topic of interest unrelated to their major.
The Honors Program requires that the project be presented at a poster presentation event. Poster presentations are held each semester. Most students present during their senior year, but may do so earlier if their honors project has been completed.
This site presents project descriptions and selected posters for Honors projects completed since the Fall 2015 semester.
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Abstract
Media coverage and anecdotal evidence suggests that teacher job satisfaction has declined since the introduction of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Does the data support this common narrative? By utilizing archival data, job satisfaction rates before and after the implementation of NCLB can be analyzed, and the legislation’s effects on elementary and secondary teachers can be compared to determine whether job satisfaction has actually decreased, and if this change has affected elementary or secondary teachers more. Previously collected, large-scale, nationally representative random survey results were analyzed to determine how overall rates of teacher job satisfaction has changed in the decades surrounding the implementation of NCLB, and how the rate of change has varied between elementary and secondary teachers. The data shows that contrary to popular narrative, teacher job satisfaction for all teachers increased significantly in the years following the implementation of NCLB. These results suggest that NCLB, commonly viewed as an unpopular failure, did not translate into a reduction of teacher job satisfaction.