Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

Department

Education

First Advisor

Dr. Linda Dorn

Abstract

High-poverty schools must have teachers who believe they can make a difference in the lives of the students. Teachers with high self-efficacy tend to have the desire to make that difference in the life of a child and persist in the face of adversity. School climate plays an important role in building teacher efficacy and persistence in high-poverty schools. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between the school climate created by a comprehensive school reform model, teacher efficacy and teacher persistence in high-poverty schools. The findings revealed a statistical significance between teacher efficacy and teacher persistence. The findings also revealed that the type of climate created by the Partnerships in Comprehensive Literacy model positively correlated to teacher persistence and was statistically significant. An implication for schools is to create school climates that foster high teacher efficacy in order to retain the best teachers for students in high-poverty schools.

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