When teachers find their work engaging and meaningful, experience joy at school, feel successful, and are able to maintain positive relationships, they are more effective in the classroom and are more likely to stay in the profession. These teachers can be described as flourishing. Situated in the field of positive organizational psychology, a new surge of research investigates individual attributes that impact employee flourishing. However, little research has been conducted to understand school-level factors that create the conditions for teacher flourishing. By employing a sequential, mixed-methods design, this project addresses this gap in the research. In the first phase, extant data from the 2016 Oregon TELL survey was used to quantitatively identify workplace factors that impact perceptions of teacher flourishing. In the second phase, focus groups with teachers from one district were conducted to understand factors that impact flourishing in that setting. In the third phase, data from these focus groups were linked with the TELL data to deepen understanding about how school-level factors impact individual perceptions of teacher flourishing in a specific setting. The results of this study will be used to inform district and state officials about the importance of implementing and supporting school structures that create the conditions for a flourishing school community.

The focus of this study was a comparison between the perceptions of school culture characteristics as measured by the TELL Tennessee Survey taken by school-based licensed educators in Tennessee and each school’s overall composite TVAAS score. 9 factor variables were discussed in the literature review. This dissertation was a quantitative study of teachers' perceptions of school culture and TVAAS composite scores. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to evaluate the relationships among overall school culture as measured by the TELL Tennessee survey and individual effects on TVAAS composite scores. The dependent variable was the response to the TELL Tennessee survey questions by Tennessee licensed school-based educators. The exploratory question that originated from this study was: Is there a significant difference in teacher perceptions in the 9 areas (Community Engagement, Teacher Leadership, School Leadership, Managing Student Conduct, Use of Time, Professional Development, Facilities and Resources, Instructional Practices and Support, and New Teacher Support) measured by the TELL Tennessee Survey among schools that received a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 on their overall TVAAS score in 2013? In an attempt to answer this question, means were calculated using the TELL Tennessee survey responses for each of the 9 variables. This purposeful sample represents 164 elementary schools in East Tennessee. An ANOVA test was used to determine if a correlation existed between teacher perceptions in the 9 areas measured by the TELL Tennessee Survey and schools that received a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 on their overall TVAAS score in 2013. The results showed no significant difference in the teachers' perceptions of their school’s administrator, culture, and overall composite TVAAS data score. The null hypotheses were retained in all 9 survey areas.