Teacher and student perceptions of the impact of organizational factors and teacher practices in high and low-performing ninth-grade academies in a suburban Maryland public school system

The purpose of this non-experimental quantitative survey study was to examine teacher and student perceptions of the impact of certain organizational factors and teacher practices on student success, in ninth-grade academies with the lowest and highest 2014-15 retention rates in a suburban Maryland school district. Guided by the theoretical framework of stage-environment fit (Eccles and Midgley, 1989), the research questions for this study were: To what extent do: 1) teacher 2) student 3) low-retention academy teacher and student, and 4) high-retention academy teacher and student, perceptions of the impact of the organizational factors of advisories and heterogeneous student grouping, and the teacher practices of interdisciplinary team teaching, teacher caring, and teacher self-efficacy, differ in low and high-retention ninth-grade academies in a suburban Maryland school district? A sample of 44 teachers and 285 students from the two academies participated in the survey. Results showed that interdisciplinary team teaching was perceived by low-retention teachers and students, and high-retention teachers, as significantly impacting student success. Heterogeneous student grouping was perceived by teachers at both academies as significantly impacting student success. Advisories were perceived by teachers and students in the low-retention academy as significantly impacting student success. Teacher caring was very highly rated by teachers at both academies as significantly impacting student success; all student perceptions of the impact of this factor were significantly lower. Teacher self-efficacy was perceived by teachers in the high-retention academy, on half of the items, as significantly impacting student success.