The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts (CCSS-ELA) call for a greater focus on informational reading and nonfiction writing during high school instruction. The ELA standards assume that teaching reading and writing will become a shared responsibility within a school and include standards for teachers of science and social studies as well as English. However, not all teachers may be prepared to incorporate informational reading and nonfiction writing into their curriculum and instruction. Using a basic qualitative research methodology, this study examined how educators in one Maryland school district—including English, science, and social studies teachers and school administrators—made sense of the CCSS-ELA and how these educators worked, or did not work, to incorporate more informational reading and nonfiction writing into their classrooms. Educators’ understanding of the CCSS-ELA was shaped, in part, by their district’s curriculum frameworks and a district-required literacy project. This study found (a) that while most of the educators interviewed supported the Common Core, teachers were generally overwhelmed with multiple competing or conflicting polices that made it difficult to focus on implementing the standards; (b) educators had mixed responses to the district-offered supports intended to help them implement the CCSS-ELA; (c) the departmentalization inherent in most high school structures limited collaboration around the standards among teachers of different subjects (d) improving student writing proved to be particularly difficult. The study suggests a need for increased policy alignment at the district and state levels to facilitate implementation of key aspects of the Common Core. Another implication is the continued need for differentiated professional development and other implementation supports based on the subject taught and level of teacher experience.

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This study explored the components of Maryland's newly-implemented teacher evaluation framework and compared state requirements with evaluations to three local school systems' evaluation procedures. The study sought to investigate the relationship between three evaluation protocols in comparison to the state requirements.;Three local school districts were selected based on their student population served and the availability of their evaluation documents. Howard County Public Schools, Anne Arundel County Public Schools, and Montgomery County Public Schools were selected. State evaluation documents were also included in the study, coming from the Maryland State Department of Education. Evaluation documents underwent a qualitative data analysis using computer coding software and were checked manually repeatedly.;It was hypothesized that the local school district evaluation documents would not be in compliance with the state's evaluation procedures. However, it was concluded that this was, in fact, not the case. The school districts used in the study each differed in their means of developing the professional practice of teachers, but remained true to the Danielson evaluation model that the state of Maryland utilized. Further study is needed to explore the initial implementation of these evaluation procedures.

The aim of this study was to determine the organizational characteristics and behaviors that contribute to sustaining a culture of academic optimism as a mechanism of student achievement. While there is a developing research base identifying both the individual elements of academic optimism as well as the academic optimism construct itself as contributors to student achievement, little information exists to assist school leaders in identifying specific organizational practices that sustain collective teacher efficacy, academic emphasis, and trust in students and families. This study employs case study methodology to investigate faculties' interpretations of academic optimism by examining the organizational and instructional practices at three well performing Virginia high schools. Gathered data includes information obtained through direct interviews with 18 (six at each site) faculty members, observations from 12 (four at each site) classrooms, and a review of each school's vision or mission statements, improvement initiatives, and course offerings and enrollments.

As school districts negotiate accountability requirements imposed by federal and state policies regarding exit outcomes for students with disabilities, one strategic response has been to provide students with mild disabilities such as SLD, ED, and Gil with alternative routes to graduation (Goertz & Duffy, 2003; Guy, Shin & Lee, 1999; Johnson & Thurlow, 2003; Johnson, Thurlow, & Stout, 2007; Pankaskie & Webb, 1999). These alternatives made available by state policy may assist school districts to maintain legitimacy by meeting accountability targets and obtaining resources; however, unintended negative consequences may arise.;The purpose of this study was to examine the responses of school districts to educational policy regarding exit outcomes for students with disabilities. A mid-Atlantic state serving over 1.2 million students was the setting of the study.;The results of this study support institutional theory in that organizational change does not occur through coercive methods alone but also by similar responses to uncertainty influenced by environmental contexts. Significant relationships were found among exit outcomes and district context variables such as size, poverty level and reading and math proficiency. The size of the district was negatively related to the Modified Standard Diploma, Special Diploma, and GED. Poverty was negatively related to the Standard Diploma and positively related to the Special Diploma.;The reading and math proficiency of the district was positively related to the Standard Diploma and negatively related to the Special Diploma.

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This research was designed with the primary purpose of identifying the dimensions of principal support perceived by public high school teachers in Virginia and identifying the relationship between principal support and organizational citizenship behaviors. In addition, this study also examined the relationship between principal support and student achievement; organizational citizenship and student achievement, as well as the interaction of Principal Support, Organizational Citizenship Behaviors and Student Achievement when controlling for SES. Participants in the study were self-selected after being contacted by a member of a team of researchers from The College of William & Mary. Thirty-four schools elected to participate in the survey which required teachers in the selected high schools to complete one of the two forms of the School Social Variables Survey. For this study, data were collected using the Organizational Citizenship Behaviors in Schools Survey, the Principal Support Survey, and Standard of Learning Test results for the areas of Algebra II, Biology, English 11 Reading, and World History I. SES was accounted for by calculating the percentage of free and reduced price lunch students served in each building.;This study found that principal support has two dimensions; expressive support and instrumental support. Only expressive support was found to have a significant positive relationship with organizational citizenship behavior. In addition, this study found that there was a significant and positive correlation between SES and all measures of student achievement. It also found that there was a significant positive correlation between Organizational Citizenship Behaviors and the measures of student achievement for Biology and English 11.;No significant correlation was found between instrumental support and organizational citizenship, either dimension of principal support and student achievement, or organizational citizenship and the student achievement measures of Algebra II or World History I.