School-Based Decision Making and the Empowerment of Secondary School Teachers

The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher empowerment in high schools that had a school council over varying lengths of time (either zero, one, two, or three years). Teachers in this study were in a state that mandated a school governance process to involve teachers in the decision-making process. A School Participant Empowerment Scale (SPES) was used to measure empowerment and it contained the following six subscales: decision making, autonomy, self-efficacy, professional growth, status, and impact. Each teacher received a packet containing a demographic form, the School Participant Empowerment Scale (six scales), and a self-addressed, stamped envelope. The returned data were analyzed by a MANOVA technique resulting in a significant Wilkeslambda. A follow-up procedure (ANOVA) indicated that a significant difference existed on the decision-making scale between schools with no experience with councils and those with three years experience. There were no significant differences for the remaining subscales. These results are interpreted and implications for practitioners and policymakers are suggested.