questions from three separate instruments to conduct the survey (See Appendix B). The questions in the survey originated from the School Participation Empower Scale (SPES) used to assess teacher perception of their empowerment within the organization in questions 1 – 3 and 6. The Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) was utilized to measure the commitment levels of teachers in questions 4 and 5. The Distributed Leadership Inventory (DLI) was also used to measure the perceptions of teachers regarding the performance of building level and district level teams in questions 9 and 10.
The dependent variables for the study were commitment levels and feelings of empowerment of the teaching staffs. The OIP was the independent variable. Two medium and two small schools were used (see Table 3.1); one district in each category (small and medium school district) had implemented the OIP.