The purpose of this study was to understand and measure principal leadership practices and teacher morale as it relates to student achievement in Mitchell County at two elementary schools, four middle schools, and one high school. First, a review of the related literature attempted to define teacher morale as much as possible given that it is an ever-changing individual characteristic. Second, the researcher tried to understand teacher morale and distinguish between high and low elements and characteristics of teacher morale. Third, the researcher examined the difficult task of measuring the morale of teachers in public education today. Fourth, an attempt was made to understand what role school leaders play in the development of teacher morale and how their specific behavior affects the morale of teachers. Lastly, student achievement was reviewed using the North Carolina End-Of-Grade tests. All of these variables were examined to determine if there was a connection or pattern to high or low student achievement based on teacher morale. This quantitative study was conducted using a survey-design method. The Purdue Teacher Opinionaire was used to measure factors contributing to teacher morale. The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) was chosen to measure leadership practices that best supports great accomplishments in organizations. The North Carolina End-Of-Grade/End-Of-Course tests were used to measure student achievement. Overall results for Mitchell County Schools showed that there was a moderately high level of teacher morale. Satisfaction with teaching led the way in contributing to higher morale whereas the issue of teacher salary was found to lower morale. School leaders in Mitchell County proved to inspire a common vision as well as encourage teaching from the heart more so than found in existing research. Teachers from two of the seven schools rated their principals higher in leadership practices than the principals themselves; this is contrary to presented research. Many significant relationships existed between perceived leadership practices and teacher morale factors. All factors of teacher morale as measured by the Purdue Teacher Opinionaire had a positive correlation with the End-Of-Grade/End-Of-Course test scores.

Teachers continue to experience an increased sense of responsibility as it relates to job performance while still being required to produce at the same level with relation to student performance. This can cause an increase in personal stress and result in lowered feelings of self- worth, having a negative impact on service delivery to children and overall job performance. Bandura (1997) defined self-efficacy as a judgment of one's ability to organize and execute given types of performances. Furthermore, he suggests that the outcomes people anticipate depend largely upon their judgments of how well they will be able to perform in given situations. The same can be said for teachers in relation to their beliefs and attitudes toward their students' overall performance. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether a relationship exists between teachers' feeling of self-efficacy and their students' overall achievement with respect to North Carolina Reading and Math End-Of-Grade tests. Surveys were administered to teachers in grades three through eight, in eight Pre-K through 8th grade schools. Data collected focused on teachers' feeling of self-efficacy. This study employed qualitative data gathered from participant surveys. Participating teachers in this study are in high performing schools as defined by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Their students have good academic records, coupled with high parental involvement (North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 2010). Six of the 14 comparisons within this study did not reveal a significant relationship between perceived teacher self-efficacy and North Carolina End-of-Grade reading and math test scores. However a relationship between perceived self-efficacy within gender did reveal that female participants tended to have higher perceived self-efficacy than that of the male participants. Male teacher participants tended to have higher North Carolina End-of-Grade reading test scores than those of female teacher participants. It was also discovered that each of the respondents, regardless of perceived self-efficacy score, had test results in both reading and math that were significantly higher than the state average. Finally it was also discovered that a relationship existed between teacher respondents with lower perceived self-efficacy scores and North Carolina math test scores.