A new study looks at how teacher satisfaction affects student achievement — and how being a part of a professional learning community can make a major difference — according to an Education Week Teacher article by Assistant Editor Madeline Will.

The study, recently published in the American Journal of Education, was conducted by Neena Banerjee, an assistant professor of public administration at Valdosta State University, and three professors of sociology and public policy from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The study used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey, which followed a nationally representative sample of children from kindergarten in 1998 through middle school. That survey asked the children’s teachers questions about their overall job satisfaction and the extent of their collaboration with other teachers.

The study’s authors used data from the first four waves of data collection, up until fifth grade in 2004, writes Will. They ended up with data from 5,850 elementary students in public schools.

The authors found that students have higher reading achievement by fifth grade when they have teachers who enjoy teaching and think they are making a difference. The researchers did not find a significant relationship between students’ math achievement and their teachers’ job satisfaction.

However, the study found that when students have teachers who are dissatisfied with their jobs, children who are in schools with a strong professional community score significantly higher in math achievement by third and fifth grades. This also held true for reading achievement in third grade, but there was no difference in reading in fifth grade, according to Will.

“In other words, the presence of a strong professional community serves as a cushion that can mitigate some of the harmful effects on students when assigned to teachers with low levels of personal job satisfaction,” the authors wrote.

Professional learning communities are when the school has a shared vision and culture where teachers are encouraged to collaborate with each other with the goal of improving student learning. Past research has found that teachers tend to have higher job satisfaction when there is a strong, collaborative school culture.

The study concluded that school culture is a critical factor that can shape the relationship between teachers’ job satisfaction and student achievement.

The authors recommend that policymakers find strategies to improve teacher job satisfaction. A 2012 MetLife survey found that only 44% of teachers are “very satisfied” with their jobs — the lowest it has been in more than two decades.

To read the article, which contains links to the study and MetLife survey, please visit http://links.ohioschoolboards.org/SU397

- Article originally published by the Ohio School Boards Association