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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.

Jade County Public Schools has provided school-based therapeutic day treatment in its public schools for more than 10 years. This program was adopted by the school system to provide an intervention in the school and classroom to address the challenging behaviors of students with emotional and behavioral disorders.;Currently, three human services agencies provide school-based therapeutic day treatment services to students in Jade County Public Schools with the goals of increasing academic achievement, increasing school attendance, reducing undesirable behaviors and increasing desirable behaviors. Until now, there has not been a formal evaluation of the program to determine if improvements were needed to meet the established goals to meet the challenges of students with emotional and behavioral disorders, as intended.;This formative program evaluation of Jade County Public Schools' School-Based Therapeutic Day Treatment program (DTX) was designed to provide school administrators, staff, parents, students and the agencies providing the school-based program with evidence-based information on the merit, worth, and value of the school-based mental health intervention and to identify areas of improvement needed to increase academic and behavioral outcomes for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) at Jade County Public Schools.;The methods utilized to conduct this evaluation sought to determine to what extent participation in the school-based day treatment program decreased behavior referrals, number of days of suspension, and number of suspensions and increased attendance and grade point averages for students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Also, participants' perceptions and lived experiences pertaining to the benefits, challenges or concerns, and aspirations for the program if it were to operate at its highest potential were explored. The results from analyzing quantitative and qualitative data collected to answer the five questions are addressed in this program evaluation.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between organizational school climate and middle school student achievement on state assessments. The author also sought to determine the relative weight of each of the factors of school organizational climate (collegial leadership, teacher professionalism, academic press and community engagement) in relation to student achievement. Finally, this study examined the relative effects of organizational climate and the socio-economic status (SES) of participating schools on student achievement.;Suburban, rural and urban middle schools in Virginia participated in this study. The study explored middle school teachers' perceptions regarding organizational school climate in terms of collegial leadership, teacher professionalism, academic press, and community engagement. The School Climate Index (SCI) was used to survey 696 teachers' perceptions of these factors in 49 middle schools in Virginia. The eighth grade Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) Tests in the areas of math and English were the measurement tools for student achievement in the study.;It was concluded that there was a significant relationship between organizational climate and student achievement for both English and math. When the sub-scales of school climate (collegial leadership, teacher professionalism, academic press and community engagement) were analyzed separately, multiple regression indicated that only community engagement had a significant independent effect on student achievement on the math SOL test. Both academic press and community engagement had independent effects on student achievement on the English SOL test. Further analysis indicated that SES had a significant independent effect on student achievement in English, while both school climate and SES had independent effects on student achievement on the math SOL test. School climate and SES explained much of the variance in student achievement.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of teamwork factors to perceived success of interagency collaboration.;Administrators (n = 375) of eight governmental service agencies, state and local, serving handicapped children, ages birth through twenty-one (21), in Virginia responded to the researcher's mailed survey. The survey instrument was validated with 20 graduate students and 4 national experts in interagency collaboration. A telephone follow-up on certain items in the survey with 26 randomly selected respondees resulted in a significant reliability coefficient (Spearman Correlation Coefficient of .9307). The survey collected, in addition to certain demographic data, information on the perceptions of agency personnel regarding successful interagency collaboration and the perceived existence of teamwork factors. Multiple correlation and regression was used to produce a linear combination of independent variables (perceived existence of teamwork factors) which correlated (p < .05) with the dependent variable (perceived level of success in interagency collaboration).;The major findings of this study were: (1) administrators perceived that teamwork factors make a significant contribution toward success in interagency collaboration, yet, it is their perception that these teamwork factors are not as evident in their interagency contacts with other agency personnel. (2) A relationship did exist between the perceptions of agency personnel as to the level of success in interagency collaboration and their corresponding perception as to the level of existence of teamwork factors; (3) Top and low level personnel within agencies did agree on the perceived level of success in interagency collaboration; (4) There was substantial agreement between the agencies on the perceived level of contribution each teamwork factor makes toward successful interagency collaboration; (5) Problem-solving ability and communication appear to be the two teamwork factors which best predicted the level of perceived success of interagency collaboration; (6) Trust appeared as a factor which differentiated between certain agencies as well as between state and local agency personnel. Local agency personnel did not identify trust as being as important as the other four factors, while three agencies did not view it as important; (7) Local level agency personnel did not identify leadership as being as important as the other four factors.

The purpose of this study was to examine new managers' experiences as they transitioned from an individual contributor and coachee to a manager and coach at Blue Sun Corporation (pseudonym). Understanding these experiences was essential to providing appropriate support to help new manager coaches acquire the coaching skills needed to consistently coach and develop their employees. This study's results will guide the design of future new manager training and organizational support initiatives by providing a deeper understanding of new manager coaches' experiences. A phenomenological research design was used for this study because it focused on understanding new manager coaches' experiences as they transitioned into the role. Six new manager coaches from Blue Sun Corporation took part in this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data, using an interview protocol explicitly developed for this study. The researcher transcribed and analyzed the interview data using a seven-step method proposed by Colaizzi (1978). From the data analysis, five themes emerged from the study participants' experiences: Anxiety, Challenges, Successes, Influences, and Beliefs. While five overarching themes were identified during the analysis, the researcher found variance in how each participant experienced some of the themes. Several additional findings also emerged from the analysis of these themes. From these findings and existing research, recommendations for practice were offered. These implications included setting proper role expectations, providing basic and personalized management skill training, hiring right-fit candidates, developing a structured onboarding plan, setting realistic performance expectations, and focusing on coaching beliefs.

In the United States of America, various manmade constructs such race, ethnicity, and social-economic status have been used to categorize members of society; however, there have been gaps in social conditions between subgroups. Critical race theory posits that public policy has played a role in these disparities (Chapman, 2011). Conditions in the United States of America matter as social cognitive theorist, Bandura (1989), posited that learning is socially constructed by triadic reciprocal determinism involving the person, environment, and behavior. Self-efficacy, a judgment of one's ability, and outcome expectancy or the judgment of whether engaging in an action will produced the desired effect are belief categories that have been reported to precede and predict behavior (Bandura, 1982). This study explored associations between 57 Voluntary Prekindergarten teachers' culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy and outcome expectancy beliefs located in urbanized Florida areas. An association between culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy and outcome expectancy beliefs and teacher demographics (i.e., age range, range of teaching experience in years, and degree level) were also explored. A Spearman's rho yielded a statistically significant, strong positive correlation between Voluntary Prekindergarten teachers' culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy and outcome expectancy beliefs. Results yielded no statistically significant associations between Voluntary Prekindergarten teachers' culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy or outcome expectancy and teacher demographics.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between school leaders' emotional intelligence (EI) and student achievement in Reading and Mathematics. The study aimed to build upon the existing literature on school leaders' EI and their influence on creating conditions for increased student achievement. EI data were collected from school-level administrators, instructional coaches, and school administration managers (SAM) in a large urban school district using the Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Abilities Survey, which comprised of the Schutte Self-Reported Emotional Intelligence Test©(SSREIT) and the Educational Leadership Improvement Tool© (ELIT). Data from the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) for Grades 3-8 Language Arts and Mathematics in 2017, 2018, and 2020 were collected and analyzed. Descriptive statistics and Quantitative analyses, including correlation analyses like Pearson r coefficient and Kendall tau-b, ANOVA, independent t-tests, and simple linear regression, were conducted to examine the association between the variables. Findings from the study indicated a significant relationship between the EI of school leaders and leadership criterions. Similarly, a statistically significant relationship was found between middle school leaders' self-reported EI and changes in mathematics achievement for Grades 6 through 8. The study's findings are expected to support school district leadership, university and college-level programs promote professional development focused on EI and its impact on developing relationships that affect student achievement, specifically in mathematics.

This dissertation in practice investigated the factors that contribute to or hinder the successful completion of college-level mathematics courses by Black students by utilizing a strengths-based approach. The purpose of this study was two-fold: to investigate the effects of variables, both individual and course-related, to the successful completion of college-level mathematics courses by first-time-in-college (FTIC) Black students and to explore inherent forms of cultural capital (Yosso, 2005) reported by mathematically successful students. The theoretical framework draws upon Critical Race Theory (Crenshaw et al., 1995), Cultural Capital (Bourdieu, 1986), and Community Cultural Wealth (Yosso, 2005) to inform the research. This study used a convergent parallel mixed methods research design (Creswell & Clark, 2017). The quantitative and qualitative portions of this study occurred simultaneously. Upon completion of the research, the results were then compared to identify any similarities or differences that existed within the findings. The quantitative data were collected through Barcelona's archival course completion data and then analyzed using binomial logistic regression (Peng et al., 2002). The qualitative data were collected through individual student interviews and analyzed using Colaizzi's (1978) seven-step process as outlined by Sanders (2003). This study provides data and results to inform researchers, practitioners, and policymakers related to inequities in student educational experiences, cultural responsiveness and inclusivity, and approaches to address opportunity and experience gaps. This study continues to build upon the research and scholarship by other scholars to interrupt the ideology surrounding achievement gaps.