Elementary classroom teacher's knowledge of and agreement with the local school board policy on student promotion and retention

This research study resulted from a concern about the effectiveness of school administrators in communicating local board policies to those expected to implement the policies. The study addressed the local student promotion-retention policy and the elementary classroom teachers' knowledge of that particular board policy. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of school administrators in 10 small school systems (fewer the 6,500 students) in East Tennessee in communicating vital information to classroom teachers. It was also the purpose of the study to identify any differences in knowledge of system policy or personal philosophy that could be discerned among teachers in specific school systems or in various demographic categories. Demographic information requested from the teachers in this study included age, years of teaching experience, gender, and grade level taught. Teachers were also asked to report the number of promotion-retention articles they had read during the past five years.

Participants were selected classroom teachers from two school faculties in 10 different school systems were selected as participants. Those teachers who were directly responsible for providing input in a promotion-retention decision were asked to complete a survey instrument which questioned the teacher's knowledge of and philosophical agreement with the local board policy. A total of 310 (83%) were returned.

It was found that just over one-fourth of the teachers were unaware of the existence of a written board policy on retention and promotion.

This suggested that, as a whole, school systems were ineffective in communicating their administrative policy on this issue to classroom teachers. Those teachers who were aware of a policy identified written notification as the method which was most often used for communicating the policy to them.

Chi square statistical treatment was used to test for any significant relationships between certain research questions and the descriptive features of the teachers. The number of promotion-retention articles read was found to be the factor which had the greatest effect on teachers' attitudes about promotion and retention.