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This study was designed for the purpose of quantitatively examining the perceptions of northeast Tennessee principals as they compared their system's professional development plans to Learning Forward's, formerly the National Staff Development Council, recently revised definition of professional development. The theoretical frameworks for this study lay in the recent works of Schlechty (2009) on transforming schools into learning organizations, and Senge (2006), who provided the essential principles of learning organizations. Data were collected from 124 principals in 19 school systems in northeast Tennessee, using a 4-point Internet based survey created by Learning Forward to evaluate perceptions of how well professional development programs address the individual components of Learning Forward's revised definition of professional development. Findings included no statistical significance between the size of the school and perception of how comprehensive, sustained, and intensive the professional development plan was or the method used to implement the professional development plan. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the perceptions of comprehensive, sustained, and intensive professional development and the method used to implement the professional development plan. Elementary school principals believed that their professional development plans were more comprehensive, sustained, and intensive than did their secondary school principal colleagues. However, there was no significant difference between their perceptions of methods for implementing professional development plans.

Swedish school law stipulates that the work of student health teams in schools should be mainly health promoting. However, earlier scientific studies and reports from authorities show that most schools work aren’t. The aim of this study is to investigate how principals in five upper secondary schools organize and lead the health promoting work and what challenges they experience in their leadership with regards to health promoting work. The study is qualitative, based on a content analysis of semi-structured interviews with five upper secondary principals in Sweden. The results of the study show that even though the principals have access to interprofessional health teams and good organizational structures the student health work in four out of five schools mainly focus on remedial work and that more must be done in order develop their health promoting work. More focus must be appointed to developing teaching and teachers and student health team personnel must work closely together. In addition, principals must integrate their health promoting work in the systematic quality work of the school.

This study is a summary of themes found in the meeting notes of school teams implementing school-wide Positive Behavior Support. Positive Behavior Support (PBS) is a systems change process of reorganizing a school's discipline structure to put in place a positive, teaching and reinforcing focus for the improvement of student behavior (Sugai & Horner, 2006). In recent years, education researchers have established that school-wide PBS is an effective way to deliver research- based interventions to improve student behavior (Colvin & Kameenui, 1993, Gottfredson, Gottfredson, & Hybl 1993; Taylor-Green & Kartub, 2000). This study focused on the implementation process in order to gain insights on successes and difficulties encountered by school teams during implementation of PBS. This study utilized meeting notes from 22 school teams that received implementation support from Utah's Academic, Behavior and Coaching Initiative (ABC-UBI). These school teams had at least 3 years of implementation support from ABC-UBI and 3 years of data from the School-Wide Evaluation Tool (SET). The SET provided data indicating the fidelity of implemenation of PBS. From these 22 school teams, 628 total meeting notes were examined using grouded theory and an open-coding process. School teams were divided into 3 implementation patterns according to their SET data: consistently high implementing schools, increasing implementation schools and inconsistently implementing schools. A total of 13 themes were established, through multiple measures of inter-rater reliability, as being present in the meeting notes. According to prevalence rates, there were 2 major themes and 4 minor themes indicated in the meeting notes. The major themes indicated that making assignments and data collection were important to successful school teams. The minor themes indicated that meaningful individual rewards for students, regular staff professional development, utilization of tools provided by ABC-UBI and teaching and posting expectations were important to successful schools. Difficulties with data collection were indicated as being associated with inconsistently implementing schools. From the themes it was inferred that public accountability and the creation of professional learning communities were important factors in consistent and successful PBS implementation.

Attitudes of Adolescent Students with Disabilities Regarding "Flextime" in a Response to Intervention Model Julie Daye Department of Counseling Psychology and Special Education, BYU Educational Specialist in School Psychology One of the stumbling blocks to implementing Response to Intervention (RTI) in a secondary school is finding time for students to receive second level instruction. Evidence of effective implementation of RTI in elementary schools is more prevalent than in secondary schools. There is limited information on how to restructure school time and other resources in order to successfully implement RTI in secondary schools. Evidence is also limited regarding the impact of second level instruction on unique populations within a school. One population in particular includes students that are disabled and already receiving special education services. A junior high in a mountain west state; has implemented an element of RTI where schedules have been realigned in order to provide all students with intervention time. They call this 30-minute segment flextime, and students use this time to either attend required interventions or enrichment activities for those students who are not in need of an intervention. Students receiving special education services at this junior high were interviewed for the study. The students were selected by a special education teacher as participants likely to provide insightful responses. Data for this study were collected by open interviews with these students and the qualitative data were then analyzed with an inductive analysis approach. Participants reported that flextime was effective in helping them to improve and maintain good grades. All participants agreed that if they were in charge of the school, they would keep flextime. They also offered suggestions for improvement in flextime, which included possible scheduling changes to increase flextime and the time allotted to get from class to flextime. They also recommended changes be made in order to improve their ability to access the help needed during academic interventions.

Professional learning communities (PLCs) are being recognized as a leading strategy to improve student achievement. Trust is critical in effectively implementing the PLC model, and the school principal is best positioned to influence school trust levels. Using Hoy and Tschannen-Moran's (1999) five facets of trust, this research sought to clarify the impact of trust among PLC teachers on their team's collaborative practices. Focus group data were collected from 12 collaborative teams in 4 schools. Six of the teams were from one school that was struggling to implement the PLC model; the other six teams were from three schools that were implementing the model successfully. This research utilized a matched cases case study to understand the relationship between trust and collaboration in PLC teams. Findings suggested the teams in successful PLCs built trust through treating one another with patience and kindness, fulfilling personal responsibilities, and sharing personal information. Additionally, the principal influenced team members' trust by allowing autonomy and team formation input. Perceived benevolence and competence led to teachers sharing teaching strategies, being more open with student data, and teaching one another's students. Also successful and non-successful PLCs emphasized different facets of trust in describing development of trust, the principal's role in building trust, and the role of trust in collaboration. These findings can inform school leaders how to more effectively build and preserve trust among members of collaborative teams such as PLCs.

Florida's United States History End-of-Course (EOC) Assessment performance outcomes are scheduled to impact student course grades, educator evaluation scores, and school grades. A professional learning plan to improve teaching and learning in support of student achievement on the Assessment does not exist. Neither Florida Statute nor the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) facilitate or fund professional learning in support of these influences. This dissertation in practice proposes the use of the U.S. History EOC Assessment Professional Learning Series to build educator capacity in support of student achievement on the Assessment. Implementation of professional learning could address the disparity between the legislated Assessment and its potential impacts. Tyler's (1949) curriculum development rationale and Shulman's (1986) notion of pedagogical content knowledge provided a conceptual framework for the proposed professional learning. Professional learning experiences were designed to include (1) an assessment simulation, (2) a correlation of simulated assessment items to item specifications, (3) a test item writing practicum, and (4) model lessons. The series was designed to support pedagogical content knowledge growth in planning, teaching, and assessing United States History; and improve instructional and professional efficacy. The ultimate purpose of the series is to improve teaching and learning to support student achievement on U.S. History EOC Assessment.

This study investigated the impact of a media literacy education plan on the reading test scores of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) at an urban high school in Central Florida. A team of 9th and 10th grade teachers created a professional learning community and developed a treatment to enhance language arts instruction with various forms of media. This media literacy education plan included four lessons utilizing media such as television commercials, magazine photographs and the Internet; the lessons were taught during the four months leading to the administration of the 2007 FCAT. Data were gathered from the 2006 and 2007 FCAT scores of students in a control and treatment group. Using these pre test and post test data, statistical analysis comprised two independent t-tests and one repeated measures ANOVA. The data revealed statistical significance at the 9th and 10th grade level, but did not show statistical significance at any particular reading level (Levels 1-5). Implications from this study included strong professional learning communities produce effective teachers and that student achievement increases when a media literacy education plan is included in English Language Arts instruction. Furthermore, this study illustrates the need to embrace modern media as viable classroom instructional tools. Recommendations were made for further research utilizing different materials, different forms of media, different student populations. This study also concluded that further qualitative research be conducted. Ultimately, this study makes a strong argument for the inclusion of media and media literacy education in the secondary English Language Arts classroom.

Many schools advocate for addressing the diverse needs of students through a multi-tiered model of prevention and intervention known as the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework. This framework often incorporates the use of universal screening to obtain data concerning students' academic and/or social-emotional and behavioral needs. School teams are expected to design and implement tiered strategies in response to data concerning students' social-emotional needs; this can be a challenging facet of MTSS. To aid in this endeavor, this qualitative study elicited school psychologists' recommendations for (a) tiered interventions that target secondary students' social-emotional competency needs and (b) professional learning opportunities that may be helpful in responding to the data from a district-designed social-emotional competency survey. Participants included 15 school psychologists from a school district in a northwestern state in the United States. Two focus groups were conducted using a video conferencing online platform. Focus group transcripts were used to identify emergent themes that were relevant to the purpose of the research. Four primary themes were identified as being important in designing, implementing, and meeting secondary students' social-emotional competency needs: (a) instruction, practice, and reinforcement in each social-emotional skill; (b) the building of staff-student and student-student relationships; (c) staff efforts being consistent, integrated, simple, and unified; and (d) adaptation of fundamental interventions by tier and social-emotional skill. To date, it is believed that school psychologists' ideas concerning tiered social-emotional interventions in response to data are not a part of the extant literature. The findings of this study build upon the current literature concerning the importance of collaboration, prioritization, alignment, explicit instruction, and professional learning opportunities in addressing students' social-emotional needs, suggesting that school psychologists are familiar with and apply current, verifiable research to their practice. The results of this study can aid school and district teams in designing, implementing, and meeting secondary students' social-emotional competency needs.

Läroplanen för grundskolan, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet (Lgr 22) ger ett tydligt uppdrag till alla verksamma lärare att ta ansvar för skolans utveckling. Tidigare forskning visar hur olika förändringsprocesser kan förstås, där finns även beskrivet vilka faktorer som gynnar ett utvecklingsarbete och vad som leder till varaktig förändring och därmed även påverkar elevers måluppfyllelse i positiv riktning. Syftet med föreliggande arbete är att tydliggöra hur lärare beskriver det utvecklingsarbete som pågår i skolan och hur de ser på sin egen och andras roll i detta arbete. Syftet är även att diskutera dessa beskrivningar för att närma sig en förståelse. För att uppnå detta syfte har en kvalitativ metodansats valts. Studiens empiriska material består av intervjuer med sex stycken lärare, som är verksamma på tre olika skolor. För att förstå såväl lärarnas beskrivning av det skolutvecklingsarbetet som de deltar i, som hur de ser på sin egen och andras roll i detta arbete, har en teoretisk analysmodell använts, vilken har utarbetats av Shulman och Shulman. Modellen beskriver de olika delar, i modellen så kallade kapital, som behövs för att ett skolutvecklingsarbete ska ha förutsättningar att lyckas. Slutsatser som kan dras är att mycket av det som återfinns i lärarnas beskrivningar skolutvecklingsarbete, bekräftar tidigare forskning, framför allt de beskrivningar som handlar om vilka faktorer som påverkar utvecklingsarbetets utfall. I lärarnas beskrivningar framträder tre olika roller, som deltar i skolornas utvecklingsarbete, det är lärarna, rektor och förstelärare. Ytterligare slutsatser som kan dras är att var och en av dessa roller, var och en på sitt vis, bidrar till att skapa innehåll och förutsättningar för de olika kapitalen, som finns beskrivna i Shulman och Shulmans analysmodell. Skolutveckling och lärares lärande hänger inte på enskilda individer, utan lärare ingår i ett större sammanhang, en organisation som påverkar, men också påverkas av de individer som finns inom organisationen.