A rural K-12 district in the Midwest evidenced a rise in the Latino population from 2002 to 2013, yet parental participation amongst Latino parents at the junior high was low. Low parental involvement has been linked to lowered self-efficacy, which impacts student learning. Although there is a plethora of research on the positive aspects of parental involvement, there is little research on Latino parent involvement in small rural communities. Within this instrumental case study, Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler's model of parent involvement was used to explore Latino parents' perceptions of their roles and responsibilities of communication strategies within the junior high and of available resources related to parental role construction and self-efficacy. Ten Latino parents with children in Grades 7 and 8 were individually interviewed. Document analysis of school documents and researcher notes were used to bolster the trustworthiness of interpretations. Typological analysis was incorporated to look at transcribed and coded notes where 4 main findings emerged: lack of communication, helping the adolescent child, understanding school structure/governance, and learning the English language. A curriculum design plan was developed in 3 areas supporting parent self-efficacy and role construction: understanding adolescents, understanding school structure/governance, and English as a second language (ESL) approach. This study may promote social change within a rural community because the implemented curriculum design plan established Latino parental engagement by incorporating a series of workshops in Spanish and an ESL format to meet the 4 categories which help to meet state and federal education guidelines within the area of parent and family engagement.

High occurrences of student incivilities are a growing concern in the K-12 education system. This problem may be directly impacted by systems thinking and inconsistent school policy enforcement. At a local high school, this problem affected student learning outcomes and teacher-student interpersonal relationships. The purpose of this case study was to explore the perceptions of teachers and administrators regarding consistency in discipline policies and practices, as well as student incivilities as they related to Senge's 5 disciplines. The conceptual framework for this study was Senge's 5 disciplines of organizational learning: systems thinking, mental models, team learning, shared vision, and personal mastery. Using a case study design and responsive interviews, data from discipline procedure documents and data on student incivilities were collected from 9 teachers in Grades 9-12, as well as 2 administrators. The data were analyzed using Hatch's interpretive method. Findings indicated discipline policies and practices were ineffective and inconsistent, due to poor systemic communication structures and lack of classroom management. A recommendation was made to implement systemic classroom management policies and Positive Behavior Intervention and Support trainings. Positive social change occurs when administrators and teachers implement the systemic policies and trainings identified in this study in order to motivate students to change their patterns of incivility and, as a result, focus on learning.

Excessive teacher turnover has considerable financial, logistical, and academic implications for public education. The purpose of this study was to develop a grounded theory (GT) that conceptualized the experiences of former Georgia public school teachers in order to better understand voluntary teacher attrition. Informed by Ryan and Deci's self-determination theory, this GT study provided insight into the process by which teachers arrive at the decision to leave public schools. Interviews with 12 former Georgia public school teachers were conducted. A constant comparative analysis was used to develop the theory of navigating the cycle of decline, which accounts for the general trend of declining motivation, well-being, and fulfillment among teachers who choose to leave the public school system. The cycle of decline consists of 4 stages: (a) embarking, in which new teachers initially experience concerns about authenticity and support in the public school context; (b) resolving, in which teachers attempt to resolve these concerns; (c) weathering, in which teachers attempt to endure or tolerate the conditions causing these concerns; and (d) opting out, in which teachers opt to leave the public school context entirely. The theory provides a useful framework for identifying and implementing strategies for retaining public school teachers. Stakeholders and policymakers in education may be able to minimize the impact of early attrition by ensuring opportunities for teachers to do authentic work in a supportive environment. The study supports positive social change by providing new insight into factors that lead to teacher turnover, and could thus help improve systemic and educational outcomes of public schools in Georgia and across the nation.

Anti-Muslim prejudice has increased precipitously since the attacks of September 11, 2001, including prejudicial effects related to socio-cultural differences on college campuses. The purpose of this quasi-experimental exploratory research was to understand the effectiveness of multicultural education programs (MEPs) in reducing anti-Muslim prejudice in higher education. Grounded in intergroup threat theory and frame analysis, it was hypothesized that students who are not engaged in multicultural affairs will perceive Muslims as more threatening and will therefore hold more prejudiced views than would students who active in multicultural affairs. The sample consisted of 125 respondents (N = 51 from a group participating in an MEP; and N = 74 from a control group of students who did not participate in an MEP) from a large research university in the Southeastern United States. Data were collected through a survey to measure symbolic threat, realistic threat, and Islamophobia. An independent group-posttest design was used to explore the effectiveness of MEPs and the independent groups' t test was performed to examine differences in the respondents' attitudes toward Muslims. Moderate yet significant differences were present between groups, suggesting that the effects of the MEP were positive. Respondents engaged in multicultural programs were less likely to perceive Muslims as threats and were less likely to hold Islamophobic views of Muslims than were their peers from the control group. Results indicate positive social change implications for the integration of American Muslims as well as the development of more comprehensive programs for educators and policy makers.

Teachers of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) have among the highest attrition rates of any teaching discipline in the United States. High attrition rates affect EBD teachers, school districts, and students with EBD. Through the theoretical lenses of Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory and Eisenberger's organizational support theory (OST), this study sought to determine if there was a difference in college preparation, job support, and job benefit/amenity factors identified by EBD teachers who intended to leave the discipline (n = 6) and those who intended to stay (n = 9). This quantitative, survey-based study yielded data from 15 EBD teachers. Results of independent-samples t-tests indicated there were no statistically significance differences in responses between the 2 groups. However, there were notable differences when the highest and lowest means scores of individual survey items were examined. The importance both groups placed on job supports when compared to college preparation and job benefit/amenities was evident. Additionally, the results indicated that EBD teachers planning on leaving the profession placed more importance on direct contact with school administrators when compared with those intending to stay. Results of this study should be taken with caution as they are drawn from a relatively small sample of EBD teachers. The results of the study may add to the field of research on EBD teacher attrition rates and possibly assist universities, educational leaders, and education policy makers in developing means to address this issue. Importantly, the results of the study could promote the professional success of EBD teachers as well as the academic, behavioral, and social growth of the students they teach.

A rural, mid-sized district is experiencing great difficulty in the recruitment and retention of substitute teachers despite increased recruitment efforts. Such difficulty has resulted in numerous disruptions to the educational process. Despite their integral role in the educational process, research on substitute teachers remains absent from the literature. The purpose of this quantitative study was to assess the job satisfaction of substitute teachers with regard to differences between the two subgroups of certified and noncertified substitute teachers. This study was based on the two-factor theory. The research questions addressed the overall job satisfaction of substitute teachers, whether teacher job satisfaction (DV) differed by subgroup membership (IV), and the motivation and hygiene factors of substitute teaching. Survey data collection involved a cluster sampling of substitute teachers (N = 315, n = 51) working in four rural school districts experiencing shortages. Data were analyzed using ANOVA and thematic analysis. Demographic subgroups that reported above average job satisfaction were females, those with 1-3 years of experience, and those with the highest level of education being a bachelor's degree. The analysis uncovered a statistically significant difference between noncertified and certified substitute teachers only in the subcategory of satisfaction with pay, with certified substitute teachers being less satisfied. The most commonly reported motivation factors were the students, coworkers, and the nature of work; the most commonly reported hygiene factors were pay, student behavior, and communication. The study contributes to social change by identifying dissatisfying aspects of substitute teaching so that administrations may take action to alleviate the shortage, providing students with improved educational experiences with substitute teachers.

Researchers suggest that restorative justice processes in schools are a successful alternative to traditional punishments for school discipline, and are used for both reactive and proactive responses to behavior issues. However, the processes are not sustainable if the administration implementing restorative justice do not promote a restorative justice ideology (RJI), and if all systems that impact the student are not aligned. Therefore, study was conducted to compare the level of restorative justice ideology between groups of administrators, teachers, and parents with a validated restorative justice ideology survey instrument that includes cooperation, restoration, and healing, and an accumulative score for RJI as a whole. Data were collected and analyzed with a One-Way ANOVA test at a selected convenience sample of 45 schools in a Western state. Using the theories of restorative justice, pedagogy, and Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems model, the comparison of ideologies between these groups indicated a statistically significant difference between administrators and parents in the restorative justice ideology belief of restoration, and in the overall belief of restorative justice ideology, showing a lack of alignment. The findings can impact social change by the identification of barriers in sustainable implementation of restorative justice in schools. The findings can also be used to suggest an evidence-based model that includes parents and families in all stages of planning, implementation, and continued practice, along with consideration that restorative justice is a belief system rather than a behavior intervention.

Public school students across the United States have been criminalized for minor youth behavior issues such as truancy, defiance, and minor fighting incidents. The presence of law enforcement is expanding in school spaces, increasing the likelihood of young students facing court systems for minor offenses. Criminalization of students is counterproductive considering schools are designed to promote student growth and development. Little is known about how students and parents experience school criminalization. The purpose of this multi-case study, based on Freire's conceptual framework of critical consciousness, was to investigate how a small group of families experienced school criminalization. Three families of youths who had been criminalized for minor school offences were recruited using community partners as referral sources. Interviews were conducted with parents using a semi-structured protocol, and data were also obtained from school and court records provided by parents. Data were triangulated, summarized as case descriptions, member checked, and then cross-theme analyzed based on Gibbs and Taylor's approach for emergent themes. Study results demonstrated that these families felt trapped between two institutions and experienced fear and frustration trying to deal with both systems. Participants also recommended ways parents and schools might improve discipline for minor offences. This study will influence social change by informing school and juvenile justice discipline policy reform about working with two systems in managing student behavior concerns. In addition, the interview protocol can be used by human services professionals to help improve understanding of clients faced with school criminalization issues.

Despite the importance an urban school district places on data-driven decision-making (DDDM) to drive instruction, implementation continues to remain a challenge. The purpose of this study was to investigate how support systems affected the implementation of DDDM to drive instructional practices in three urban schools that recently transitioned from priority or focus to good standing on the State Accountability Report. The study aligned with the organizational supports conceptual framework with an emphasis on data accessibility, collection methods, reliability and validity, the use of coaches and data teams, professional development, and data-driven leaders. Through the collection of qualitative data from one-on-one interviews, the research questions asked about the perspectives on data culture and data driven instructional practices of three school leaders and nine teachers. The data were triangulated to generate a thematic illustration of content that was coded and analyzed to identify solid patterns and themes. Findings suggest that leaders create a data-driven school culture by establishing a school-wide vision, developing a DDDM cycle, creating a collaborative DDDM support system, communicating data as a school community, and changing the way technology is used in DDDM initiatives. Based on the findings, a project in the form of a white paper was developed, using research to support that when data is regularly used to hone student skills, a positive shift in overall teacher practices occurs. This shift provides the potential for positive social change when students have opportunities to attain academic goals, resulting in increased student achievement and higher graduation rates.

In California classrooms, general education teachers have experienced stress due to an increasing number of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). This study used a hermeneutical phenomenological inquiry approach to explore teachers' perspectives of their pre-service professional development (PD), in-service PD, and classroom experiences with students who have externalizing EBD. The theoretical framework centered on social constructivism. Research questions addressed the teachers' perceptions of their pre-service and in-service PD on students with EBD and their experiences with students' externalizing behaviors. Twenty California general education teachers, each from a different school district, volunteered to participate in face-to-face interviews. Stratified purposeful sampling was used to compare perceptions of teachers whose students ranged from preschool through high school. NVivo was used to organize the data and highlight significant themes. Findings included specific areas of PD needs based on students' grade levels, as well as areas of concern across the grade levels. Teachers of all grade levels need PD on how to address aggressive and unsafe behaviors, issues with families, and disruptions in the classroom. Links between the teachers' PD experiences and classroom experiences were inconclusive due to various influences. Findings and conclusions on pre-service and in-service PD needs were presented as textual descriptions. Results of this inquiry may lead to areas for further research, such as how to foster personal characteristics of teachers who have positive experiences with students who have EBD. Implications for positive social change include addressing the specific areas of PD need. Addressing these target areas may lead to California teachers having increased success with students who have externalizing behaviors.