An investigation of leadership best practices and teacher morale in six community college child development centers in southern California

This study was an investigation of a community college child development centers' leadership best practices and center teacher morale. A review of the literature focused on high and low teacher morale and leadership best practices. This quantitative study was conducted using the survey-design method with an adapted version of the Purdue Teacher Opinionaire (PTO; R. R. Bentley & A. M. Rempel, Manual for the Purdue Teacher Opinionaire, West Lafayette, IN: Purdue Research Foundation, 1980), measuring factors contributing to center teacher morale, and the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI; in J. M. Kouzes & B. Posner, The leadership challenge [3rd ed.], San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003), measuring leadership best practices. The results of the study indicated that the overall morale of the center teacher study participants was high, especially for the adapted PTO factors of center teacher satisfaction, rapport with colleagues, and curriculum issues. Both the center teachers and center administrators were in agreement with low responses for teacher load, which indicated low morale for this factor. The results of the LPI revealed that center administrators perceived their leadership best practices at higher levels than did their teachers. Results of the center teachers' responses indicated low agreement for their administrators in the factor model the way, and both of the groups in the study revealed lower responses of agreement for the factor encourage the heart. Finally, the results of this study indicate that perceptions of high center teacher morale are strongly linked to center administrators' use of leadership best practices.