The effect of teacher participation, teacher morale, and teacher shortage on U.S. school performance

Maryam Saroughi
George Mason University, USA
Kenneth Trzaska
Lewis and Clark Community College, USA
Jehanzeb R. Cheema
George Mason University, USA

Prior research has identified employee-related factors such as participation, morale, and shortage as important predictors of organisational performance. However, this relationship has not been extensively examined for educational organisations such as schools, colleges, and universities with large scale samples. In this study we used multiple regression to investigate the effect of teacher participation, morale, and shortage on school performance using a nationally representative sample of 162 U.S. schools. Our empirical results suggest a significant relationship between the three teacher-related predictors and school performance. However, this relationship varies across literacy areas such as mathematics, reading, and science. Educational implications are discussed.
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Authors: Maryam Saroughi (corresponding author) holds a PhD in Educational Psychology from George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA, where she has taught undergraduate courses. As an educational researcher, she is a strong advocate for the teaching profession and educational equity. Her research explores student well-being, and development of self-regulatory skills and sense of belonging, with particular emphasis on the quality of teacher-student relationship. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3747-4480 Email: msarough@gmu.edu Kenneth Trzaska EdD is President of Lewis & Clark Community College. With over 25 years in higher education, he previously led Seward County Community College and holds a doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He champions innovation, collaboration, and community engagement to advance college access. Research interests focus on the future of higher education. Web: https://www.lc.edu/college-information/leadership/presidents-office/index.html Email: ktrzaska@lc.edu Jehanzeb R. Cheema PhD (GMU) is an applied research methodologist and currently works as an Associate Professor at the Costello College of Business, George Mason University, Virginia, USA. Jehanzeb has peer-reviewed publications on topics such as student literacy, self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and enjoyment of reading. Web: http://mason.gmu.edu/~jcheema1 ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2994-6679 Email: jcheema1@gmu.edu Please cite as: Saroughi, M., Trzaska, K. & Cheema, J. R. (2025). The effect of teacher participation, teacher morale, and teacher shortage on U.S. school performance. Issues in Educational Research, 35(3), 1178-1196. http://www.iier.org.au/iier35/saroughi.pdf