This study sought to explore the hiring process, including the creation of the teacher profile, of four suburban North Texas high schools implemented when hiring teachers for the first year of the campus' existence. An exploratory sequential mixed methods research design was applied, and three data collection tools were implemented: an electronic survey, interviews with campus administrators, and the analysis of campus hiring process artifacts. Survey data suggested that participating campus principals valued those domains and indictors on ASCD's Qualities of Effective Teachers and the Teacher Quality Index. Administrator interview data revealed that campus administrators who opened high school campuses in North Texas ISD and hired teachers for the inaugural year valued teachers aligned to the campus administrator's mission, vision, philosophy, and values. In addition, artifacts provided by the four interviewed administrators indicated the implementation of the campus administrator's mission, vision, philosophy, and values when developing the teacher profile and subsequent interview questions in collaboration with the campus leadership team involved in the hiring process. Recommended actions for campus administrators of new high school campuses, and recommendations for further research are also included.

Hundreds of thousands of students earn credit toward both high school and college each year through dual credit programs. This research project used qualitative methods to elicit the story, the shared reality, of faculty who spend their time with these students. It is an important story to tell as legislators, community college and public school administrators, parents, and students are motivated to see these programs not only continue, but grow. System influence diagrams (SIDs) depicting the dual credit teaching experience on high school and college campuses were developed for two separate groups of community college faculty. The models were used for comparing the high school and college dual credit teaching environments. The results of this study support other research, suggesting there are important differences between the high school and college environments when teaching dual credit students. From an overall perspective, faculty found the community college campus environment superior to teaching on the high school campus for reasons related to facilities and technology, a sense of belonging in the larger organization, and the integration of dual credit students into a more traditional college environment. / text