One of the multifaceted challenges for those who study educational institutions is to investigate how school perceptions about itself contribute to students’ academic success because schools differentially affect students and their achievement. The identification of school characteristics associated with differences in student achievement is essential to the development of effective schools (Srivastava, Bartol, ; Locke, 2006). One powerful construct that varies significantly among schools and that is systematically associated with student achievement is the collective efficacy beliefs of teachers within a school. (Bandura, 1997; Goddard, Hoy, W.
; Hoy, A., 2000; Goddard, LoGerfo et al., 2004; Hoy et al., 2002; Tschannen-Moran ; Barr, 2004). Collective teacher efficacy refers to the perspectives of teachers in a school that the performance of the faculty as a group will have a positive effect on students (Goddard, Hoy, W.
; Hoy, A., 2000). The benefits of high collective teacher efficacy are the acceptance of high objectives, strong organizational effort, and a determination that leads to better performance. Whereas the opposite is also factual, that lower collective efficacy leads to decreased effort, the propensity to give up, and a lower level of performance (Goddard, Hoy, W.
; Hoy, A., 2000). Hence, schools with high collective teacher efficacy have higher student achievement than schools with lower levels of collective teacher efficacy, independent of the effects of student socioeconomic status (Bandura, 1993; Goddard, 2001; Goddard et al., 2000; Ross, Hogaboam-Gray, ; Gray, 2003).
The study of collective efficacy is relatively new, and little research has been done on the subject (Tschannen-Moran ; Woolfolk, 2001) even though it is commonly understood that a more in-depth comprehension of this construct is essential for a functional organization (Bandura, 1993). These observations pose a relevant question: What are possible factors can we identify if we are to maintain high collective efficacy?
