The primary focus in this study was to capture the experiences of parents who have participated in the IEP process. Specifically, the research expounded on how parental experiences during the IEP process impacted or informed education plans for their children and informed education leaders seeking to improve the IEP process experience. This study seeks to better understand the interactions of parents, educators, and school leaders in the collective effort to focus on who should be at the center of the concern: the “student.” Using a transformative qualitative methodology, this study drew upon interview data from parents and school leaders to examine how parents felt in IEP meetings and became empowered as active change agents as they advocated for their children. Five major concerns that could pose challenges to the practice and implementation of special education programing in varying schools were identified. The goal of this research was to assist school leaders in their efforts to improve the IEP process by establishing a process that welcomes fruitful input from parents while supporting them in understanding the process, educational language, timelines of actions, and legal notices that outline their rights and responsibilities. The purpose of the study was to help cultivate a relationship that both the school community and parents could engage in, in support of the child that is at the center of the process. / Educational Leadership

Racially diverse populations have risen over the course of the last decade in public schools while the population of teachers continues to be dominated by white teachers. Cultural competence becomes an important component for white teachers as they seek to educate racially diverse students. This qualitative study used interviews, observations, lesson plan reviews and a student focus group to learn from white teachers and racially diverse students in an urban environment. The study focused on answering one primary question and two sub-questions that centered around learning how white teachers develop their cultural competence and develop connections with racially diverse students. The primary question focused on how white teachers develop their cultural competence to implement culturally responsive practices in the classroom with the first sub-question focusing on the beliefs and teaching strategies they employ to bridge the gap between their culture and the students’ cultures. The second sub-question focused on whether students felt connected to the teachers that use cultural knowledge and culturally responsive strategies in the classroom. Four themes arose after the data collection and analysis process: (1) Teachers acknowledge and appreciate racially diverse backgrounds; (2) Teachers value a sociopolitical consciousness by reflecting on, assessing, and overcoming biases pertaining to cultural differences, oppressive practices, and privilege; (3) Teachers implement student focused instructional approaches that involve student discourse, collaboration, and engagement at various levels; (4) Teachers care and develop trusting, respectful relational relationship with their students. / Educational Leadership

Too many students across the United States have been instructed by teachers who have delivered below grade level instruction and assigned below grade level tasks (The New Teacher Project, 2018). Due to these teacher practices, there has been a lack of student academic achievement and academic growth. Instructional coaching has been a strategy that schools have utilized to support teachers with improving practices with the goal of providing all students with grade level instruction. This study attempted to identify beneficial components of an instructional coaching program and instructional coach. The purpose of this study was to explore teachers’ perceptions of instructional coaching conducted by a school-based teacher leader (SBTL) within a large urban school district in the Eastern part of the United States. This was an explanatory mixed methods study which included three phases of data collection. The first phase was an analysis of school demographics and performance data for the twelve high schools included in this study. Phase two was a survey distributed to all teachers who taught in the twelve high schools during the 2020 – 2021 and 2021 – 2022 school years. Eighty-nine teachers completed the survey. The third and final phase was a series of one-on-one semi-structured interviews conducted with eight teachers who indicated on their survey that they had experienced instructional coaching. The survey data provided the breadth, and the interview provided the depth to arrive at answers to the research questions posed. Of the survey respondents, quantitative results indicated that white teachers who experienced coaching discussed pedagogy and received written materials more often than black, ingenious, and people of color. (BIPOC) teachers who experienced coaching. Additionally, it was found through quantitative data that teachers with three to ten years of fulltime teaching experience assigned less rigorous tasks, yet experienced instructional coaching less frequently than teachers with more than ten years of fulltime teaching experience. Most interestingly, it was found through regression results that experience with instructional coaching increased job satisfaction. Qualitative results indicated most beneficial and least beneficial components of an instructional coaching program and coach. The interviews elaborated upon and supported the quantitative findings. The findings from this study provided insight into beneficial components of an instructional coaching program. It is intended that the implications from this study will used to inform policy and practices to implement instructional coaching to support teachers with providing grade level instructional to all students. Additional research is needed to further examine instructional coaching through the coaches’ perspectives. / Educational Leadership

Students with disabilities are entitled to attend a school of their choice. In order for the rights of students with disabilities to be honored during the high school choice process, principals must create school structures and systems that are alignment to federal policies to lead in the best interest of students. This mixed methods, qualitative dominant study used a survey and semi-structured interviews with current K-8 school principals to better understand the experiences of principals as they support students with disabilities through high school selection. This research study was designed to answers the questions of (1) how do K-8 principals understand and implement their role in the School Selection Process for students with disabilities? (2) how do K-8 principals create conditions and school culture so that students with disabilities have choices in the school selection process?, (3) in what ways are the rights of students with disabilities honored in this large urban district’s School Selection Process? There were several themes that emerged from this research (1) the principal as an advocate for students with disabilities, (2) the principal as an ethical leader in their decision-making, (3) the principal creates organizational structures in their schools based on the knowledge that they have, (4) the principal creates a school culture built on a shared collective efficacy and (5) the principal creates a school culture where families are authentic collaborators. / Educational Leadership

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No description available.

No description available.

Leadership self-efficacy is an important quality for school principals. In his work, Hattie has stated, "How we think about the impact of what we do is more important than focusing on what we do (Hattie, 2020)." Leadership efficacy, theories of action, and how leaders ensure their actions are aligned with their goals is more important than ever as educators face challenges with teacher shortages and leading in a tumultuous time. Teacher recruitment and retention is a worldwide problem. Teachers are leaving the field. While teachers do not have to validate the beliefs of their leaders, they must carry out the actions at the direction of the leader. This study explored the relationship between leadership self-efficacy, teacher perception and teacher retention.

Joy in education is an underexplored construct that could serve as the key ingredient to cultivate positive learning environments and inspire innovation. The purpose of this study was to determine how joy might flow to students and what teacher efforts, instructional decisions, and administrative supports might influence the level of joy in the classroom. The central research question was, how do schools and teachers foster joy in their students? This research was explored from a strengths-based, positive perspective with theoretical foundations in organizational flourishing and positive psychology. This study used a survey research design with a school district that was in the midst of a multi-year initiative on joy. Survey data were collected from 178 elementary school teachers from 21 schools about the perceived level of joy in their classrooms and schools, their levels of joy, teacher efforts, instructional decisions, and administrative supports received. The results showed that the perceived level of joy in the classroom correlated most strongly with the teacher’s level of joy, with a variety of teacher efforts and instructional decisions that correlate positively with perceived joy in the classroom. The strongest administrative support for the teacher’s joy was supporting teachers’ self-care. Instructional decisions to allow students to collaborate and offer opportunities for an in-depth exploration of the content contributed independently to the prediction of the classroom’s perceived level of joy. This study serves as an invitation to educators to experiment with a variety of strategies to find what makes learning a joyful endeavor in their classrooms.

Technology development is shifting teaching modality and online education has become a normal teaching mode. This shift informed teachers of changes in instructional planning. To help teachers better understand planning for online instruction, this study investigates Mid-Atlantic State Virtual Program K-12 teachers’ online instructional planning beliefs and practices through a sequential explanatory mixed method. A total of 73 teachers participated in the survey, and 15 were interviewed. Through descriptive statistical analysis and thematic analysis, this study reveals that (1) eight elements are identified as key elements to online instructional planning. Among them, six align with the framework used in this study. Engagement and time are two newly found elements. (2) Most teachers prioritize content design, learning activities and/or teaching strategies, and communication and/or interaction over learning tools and media, learner analysis, and assessment and/or evaluation. However, they use all six elements regularly in their planning. (3) There are no statistically significant differences among teachers with different online teaching experiences in prioritizing or the frequency of using the six identified elements. (4) High school teachers place less importance on content design than middle and elementary teachers. High school teachers also attach less importance to learner analysis than elementary school teachers. (5) Online instructional planning differs from face-to-face planning in many aspects. This study discusses many challenges to teaching online. Teachers who participated in this study suggest that new online teachers be prepared for online instruction with appropriate dispositions, knowledge, and skills. In addition, administrators should play an essential role in supporting teachers.