Enhancing Commitment or Tightening Control: The Function of Teacher Professional Development in an Era of Accountability

Abstract

During the past decade or so, popular rhetoric has shifted away from site-based management and participatory governance as the centerpiece of school reform strategies as accountability and standards-based reform have become the reform mantra of policy makers at all levels of government. Critics of accountability-based reforms have suggested that teacher commitment is likely to be the main casualty of these control-based reform strategies. Annual polls of teachers, however, tend to show they generally support key aspects of standards-based reform. Thus, the impact of the apparent shift away from a commitment strategy of school organization toward a control strategy on teachers’ commitment to the profession remains unclear. Our analysis using the nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey suggests that schools organized with a stronger commitment strategy may have better success in achieving their reform goals because of increased teacher participation in content-related professional development and greater stability in its teaching staff.