The purpose of this study was to determine if differences existed in teacher innovativeness in four low-socioeconomic status elementary schools. Two schools were high-performing and two schools were low-performing. Classification of performance was based upon state standards. The study explored external factors, personal characteristics, and experiences that affected the teachers' levels of innovativeness and the extent to which these factors influenced the teachers.

In this study, teachers were asked to express their attitudes and perspectives regarding innovativeness and the factors they felt affected their levels of innovativeness and the innovativeness of their schools. This study offers guidance for improving the factors that affect teacher motivation to innovate. However, rather than performance being affected by levels of teacher innovativeness, as expected, the findings of this research indicate that the primary factors affecting school performance were related to the amount of preparation for state mandated testing. This was indicated by the lack of statistically significant differences in the innovativeness of the teachers in high-performing versus low-performing schools, as measured in an Analysis of Variance. This was further supported through qualitative analysis.

The teachers offered statements for reasons they felt more or less innovative presently as opposed to when they first began teaching. They also related perceptions of the leadership displayed by their principals and environmental effects on innovativeness. State mandated testing was the most frequently stated reason for becoming less innovative. Students and the motivation teachers felt because of their concern for students were most frequently stated as the primary influencing factors for acquiring higher levels of innovativeness.