The teacher empowerment process emphasizes professional development and participation (i.e., increasing professional status, skills, knowledge and providing the opportunity to participate in decision-making); however, whether these efforts eventually lead to the realization of teacher power remains a critical concern, especially considering that the empowerment practices have to operate in the existing school culture. Without an adequate understanding of factors that impact teacher power exercises in schools, the impact of teacher empowerment remains under question. This study aims to empirically examine the impact of both individual-level factors (gender, race, union status, degree, teaching experience, collaboration, and networking) and school-level factors (school size, school level, and school climate) on teacher power in two decision domains at schools--namely, power in teaching and power in policy. The study uses data from a national representative survey--1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was selected as the main method for data analysis. The analysis of the nationally representative data confirmed some previous findings and also made some new discoveries about teacher power. The results did not reveal any effects of gender, race and degree on teacher empowerment. Teachers with union membership report less power in both teaching and policy compared to teachers with no union membership. Teaching experience was not found to be related to either power in teaching or power in policy. This study also suggests that the empowerment is more effective when teachers are involved in collaboration and a network. In addition, the study found that teacher power is related to several school-level factors: teachers from small schools (enrollment less than 300) have more power in both teaching and policy decision-making, and schools where teachers have more influence in decision-making were characterized by higher level of principal support and teacher engagement, with a lower level of teacher frustration.This study offers three main conclusions. First, power is a multilevel concept because teacher power is an outcome of interplay between a teacher's individual characteristics and school organizational features. Second, teacher empowerment strategies should be highly contextualized. Third, social opportunities such as collaboration and networking should be a major target in fostering teacher empowerment. Therefore, policy makers and educational administrators need to provide holistic support from multiple levels to help to grow a healthy school environment in order to effectively empower teachers at schools. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]