Finding successful ways to motivate middle school students who suffer from amotivation is one of the biggest challenges educators face today. When students lack the internal drive to do their best in school, the responsibility falls on those who care enough to find ways to light the necessary fire for academic success. This study aimed to explore the impact of a new school policy that tied students' end-of-year assessment results to students' course schedule options the following year. The belief was that students would want to have personal choice in their future schedule which would motivate them to do their best on the assessments. Furthermore, the study surveyed the middle school teachers who administered the exams asking for their perceptions regarding the attitudes, behaviors, and motivation levels they observed in the students who took the assessments under this new policy compared to students who took the assessments prior to the policy being implemented. The professional knowledge and experiences shared by these middle school teachers can provide educational leaders and policymakers with actionable insights regarding best practices for motivating middle school students to higher levels of academic achievement. [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.]