<p>As political and societal expectations for our nation's public school system continue to increase, leaders of local school systems are ever mindful of the demands for continual improvement. The cornerstone for this improvement is the classroom teacher. Research has supported the idea that teacher experience is influential in the effectiveness of the teacher. The statistics on teacher attrition, though, are disheartening. </p><p> The purpose for this research is to uncover emerging themes regarding the leadership practices and cultural elements that are in place in a school that has a high retention rate of teachers. This case study includes a school in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. This school has been identified as having the highest teacher retention rate in its programmatic level in Berkeley County, West Virginia, and has one of the highest retention rates among all programmatic levels in the county. Through the use of the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) designed by Kouzes and Posner (2003), open-ended interviews, and a review of school documents, the researcher provides data relevant to the creation of a school culture that fosters teacher retention. </p><p> This study describes the elements found in this high school that have led to the retentive culture which exists. The familial culture of this school has been affected by the leadership practices of the principal, the collegiality and friendships among the staff, and the attitudes and behavior of the students. These leadership practices and cultural elements are described in detail in order to provide an understanding of components of a school culture that leads to teacher retention. </p>

<p> In the 21^st century, increased school accountability has sharpened the focus of school and district leaders on improving instructional practice to raise student achievement. The implementation of professional leaning communities (PLCs) is one improvement effort in which schools establish collaborative cultures focused on increasing student learning outcomes. Leaders who build learning organizations and implement PLCs in their buildings have the opportunity to create and sustain a context for change and continuous improvement. </p><p> This study sought to discover how one high school principal sustains a context for continued improvement through PLCs using case study methodology. Schools comprised of PLCs allow educators to grapple with the unique needs of their children in their specific contexts. The problem is that there is limited literature and research to indicate how leaders sustain PLCs over time. The knowledge of how to sustain learning and improvement over time is needed to facilitate leaders in moving their schools into cultures of collaboration, which is a marked difference from the past 200 years. Therefore, the overarching research question of this study was: How do administrators, teachers, and PLC leaders in a school that has developed and implemented PLCs, sustain a context for continuous improvement? </p><p> Using a 360-degree analysis of the case study school, three major findings emerged from this study: the PLCs in a learning organization operate at various phases of PLC development, making the change process to develop, implement, and sustain the work of continuous improvement through PLCs fluid, dynamic, and complex; there are 10 strategies for sustaining the work of PLCs that contribute to the success of effective and mature PLCs to sustain continuous improvement and are therefore instructive in nature; and, the work in the Developing and Implementing phases is critical to the success of PLCs and their ability to sustain a context of continuous improvement.</p>

<p> The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of principals whose schools were granted innovation status in accordance with the <i>Colorado Innovation Schools Act of 2008</i> (CISA). The CISA created a statewide system that allowed individual schools and entire districts to increase autonomy and flexibility in areas such as staffing, scheduling, educational programming, and resource allocation. </p><p> The data were collected from interviews with principals and a rural superintendent and from an examination of the School Innovation Plans. Data were refined into common themes, and a rich narrative was created. The conclusions indicated that successful principals of innovation schools understand the change process, focus on instructional leadership, promote a positive school culture, require autonomy, implement exemplary leadership strategies and qualities, and tailor innovation plans to the needs of the school. The conclusions also indicated that successful superintendents tailor innovation plans to the needs of the district. </p><p> This research is important because education reform in the United States is in need of school reform models that result in increased academic achievement. The implications for positive change are that schools given the autonomy and flexibility to operate may have the potential to increase academic achievement. In addition, the CISA model has the potential to be replicated for application in other states. The experiences and perceptions of principals of innovation schools provided a window into the leadership role principals have in implementing the <i>Colorado Innovations Schools Act of 2008</i>.</p>

<p> District and school leadership are essential to the success of our students and our schools. While extensive conceptual literature describes leadership characteristics, there are few empirical studies that address the daily reality of schools. In addition, additional research is needed describing how principals maneuver within the context of schools and school districts. This phenomenological study explored how one elementary school principal understands and enacts leadership and to what extent she employs intentional strategies to facilitate change. The purpose of the study was to offer a rich profile of one elementary school principal's practice to understand how a principal constructs meaning, deploys action, and employs strategies to affect change. The results reveal this principal uses vision, the intentional strategies of expectations, modeling, decision-making processes, reflection, authentic conversations, and stories to facilitate change within her school. In addition, she maintains a human resource focus establishing relationships and building capacity in others as leadership strategies. The principal did not employ the same intention or strategies in relationship to the district or community, however. Results further indicated the district is also acting as a barrier to the implementation of leadership for change. Results of this study have implications for practitioners and future research. Practitioners can employ similar strategies as well as gaining awareness of the importance employing intention and political skill with the district. The results also highlight the need for additional leadership research as well as research investigating the role of the district in support of schools.</p>

<p> Despite advancements in the search of equity, females still struggle to find acceptance in the field of information and communication technology. Research indicates that differences in perception of ability of ICT use begin to manifest in the middle school level. This mixed methods study explored the experiences and perceptions of 46 middle school females and males to expose possible influential factors about the use of ICT by females. The dissertation study occurred in two phases. The first phase involved a survey that was given to the entire middle school. Data from the survey provided participants for the second phase, which involved a focus group discussion with six female students in grades 7 and 8 to examine influential factors in the use of ICT. Findings indicated statistically significant differences between males and females exist at the study site. Females were more likely to (a) access ICT at the after school program and at a relative's house; (b) identify a relative as an important influence in ICT; (c) share created media; (d) declare higher experience with Photoshop; (e) seek medicine as potential career and less likely to (f) report building a robot or invention using technology; (d) use ICT to play multi-user online games; (f) express interest in action, competition, and graphics in games (h) know terms such as firewall and torrent; (i) pursue careers as computer programmers, engineers, or computer game designers than their male counterparts. The findings support the need for school leadership establishing or enhancing a technology integration program to consider the difference between males and females as foundational cornerstone in the technology integration program.</p>

<p> This study's purpose was to investigate new site administrators' perceptions of the term <i>community involvement,</i> of their role to engage the local community members as partners in their school, their preparation and support to work with their communities, and their challenges on-the-job with community engagement. This study also examined new site administrators' perceptions and needs to better understand what tools are necessary to help them create thriving community partnerships. </p><p> Thirty new site administrators across 4 counties of Southern California participated in a semi-structured 45-minute interview. All were employed less than 4 years and represented the gender, age and ethnic diversity of these counties. These individuals initially responded that parents were the community, not noting businesses, churches, health and the many other entities that surround and should be involved in school life. Each stated in some fashion that the role of the site administrator was to interface with the community beyond the site faculty and staff. All perceived that their academic preparation lacked any knowledge and skills to work with parents and the community although that is 1 of 6 required components for an administrative license in California. In addition, none indicated formal on-the-job professional development opportunities; 2 in the same district mentioned superintendent support of community involvement. </p><p> The first year administrators shared their sense of feeling overwhelmed in their new leadership position for a school staff and the myriad of policies/procedures. New site administrators in their second&ndash;fourth years commented on the struggle to find time to deal with community partnerships, the lack of district support, and limitations created by policies/procedures. </p><p> The respondents expressed interest in working with community groups, noting the many benefits to the school. All suggested ways that school districts, counties, colleges, department of education, professional associations, accrediting agencies, and policymakers could provide required training in the knowledge and skills to develop sustaining community partnerships.</p>

<p> Abstract of Dissertation Principal Socialization in One Virginia School District: A Phenomenological Investigation This phenomenological investigation examines the lived experiences of school principals to discover how principals hired from within their school division perceive and make meaning of their organizational socialization experiences&mdash;their thoughts, feelings, beliefs, values, and assumptive worlds. Nineteen public school principals participated in the study. All of the principals worked within the same school district, a school district that historically hires 99% of its school principals from within the division. Principals in the study not only served as assistant principals within the division, but they also served in other roles such as teacher, specialist, and coordinator, thus experiencing spiral socialization.</p><p> The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews lasting 90 minutes over a 3-month period. Moustakas' (1994) phenomenological research model was used to analyze data, allowing the researcher to examine what and how the phenomenon was experienced by each participant. Additionally, it allowed the researcher to uncover essential themes and describe the total essence of the phenomenon.</p><p> Results revealed two themes that emerged from the analysis about how principals who were hired from within their school division perceive and make meaning of their organizational socialization experience: (a) A Sense of Family and Familiarity and (b) A Sense of Preparation and Continuous Training. The essence of the experience presented a summary of the participants' stories. Being hired to the principalship within their school division presented feelings of being connected, groomed, and supported. For the 19 principals in this study, principal socialization begins with leaders who are ready, willing, and able to build relationships and pour into those who desire to lead and those in whom they recognize leadership potential.</p><p> While most socialization research seeks to offer recommendations, this study provides possibilities for awareness regarding the organizational socialization of school principals. This awareness may prove beneficial to organizations that prepare school administrators and school divisions as they consider recruiting, hiring, retaining, and training school principals for an ever changing, demanding role.</p>

<p> This dissertation is an analytic Autoethnography that investigates Self-Leadership through the lens of Action Research for the purpose of introducing a new approach, <i>Self-Action Leadership</i> (SAL) through <i> Self-Action Research</i> (SAR). Self-Action Research is a form of Action Research focused on building one's own personal and professional effectiveness and wellbeing, and Self-Action Leadership refers to an original, comprehensive theory and model of Self-Leadership that utilizes Self-Action Research, and that could potentially be utilized by any self-leader. In this study, personal stories and artifacts are presented as an autoethnographic case study of my journey in developing Self-Leadership, and connections are made to the primary, extant model of Self-Leadership (<i>A Comprehensive Self-Leadership Framework </i>) developed by leading Self-Leadership scholars Neck and Manz (2010). The SAL Theory and Model are presented as nomological constructs derived from an analysis of presented, qualitative data synthesized with relevant literature in multiple fields of inquiry including Self-Leadership and Action Research, and are intended to be applicable to other individuals seeking greater control of their personal development. The accompanying Pedagogy of Personal Leadership represents a basic curriculum template and toolbox that may benefit leaders and educators seeking to practice and teach Self-Leadership theory in nations, states, communities, schools, organizations, neighborhoods, homes, and individual lives.</p><p> <b>KEY WORDS AND PHRASES</b>: Self-Leadership (S-L), Autoethnography, Action Research (AR), Self-Leadership Efficacy (SLE), Self-Action Research (SAR), Self-Action Leadership (SAL), SAL Theory, SAL Model, Natural Laws of Acquisition (NLA), Self-Leadership Gravity (SLG), Self-Oneness, and Pedagogy of Personal Leadership. For the sake of clarity, key words and phrases will be capitalized throughout this dissertation--an APA style deviation.</p>

<p> The purpose of this exploratory case study is to focus a lens on lead teachers of California Partnership Academies (CPAs), who are responsible for overseeing the operation and coordinating the components of a complex, contra-normative secondary reform model. This study examines the stresses experienced by four CPA lead teachers at two different sites in a district committed to placing the <i>Linked Learning</i> model in the center of its secondary school reform strategy. Previous research has identified stressors inherent in the lead teacher role, and in the career academy reform studied here. This research assess the impact of those stressors, strategies lead teachers employ and conditions that facilitate lead teachers' work by looking at the dynamics of their role, the context in which they work, and patterns of leadership distribution through three key relationships, each focused on a particular routine.</p><p> This study found that the primary role-related stressor these CPA lead teachers experienced was overload, which may have implications for the sustainability of the model, particularly as it is scaled up. The contra-normative nature of this reform was evident in the conflicts that arose for lead teachers in each of the three relationships examined. In their relationships with administrators focused on the master schedule, traditional patterns of student placement into AP and non-AP tracks conflicted with the effort to create pathways for all students to access both college and career. Teachers struggled to create strategies for addressing this issue. In lead teachers' work with their peers on interdisciplinary curriculum, the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of the reform conflicted with the autonomous, individualistic and subject-oriented nature of teacher culture. Where collective co-performance defined school-wide patterns of leadership distribution, lead teachers were better able to influence collaborative teacher norms. Lead teachers' relationships to community and industry partners facilitated integration of work-based learning into the CPA instructional program, accessed new resources and challenged the traditional segregation of academic and vocational education. This work was greatly facilitated by district support but limited by the capacity of site administrators who were often unaware of these partnerships, and were not developing systemic ways to include them in the school's vision or program.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study is to address the gap between the available wealth of resources and the dearth of character education currently in practice at the high school level by investigating if secondary teachers' knowledge of character education information, their beliefs toward character education preparation and their perceived role as an educator relates to their use of character education practices on the school campus and in their own classrooms. The participants consisted of 103 secondary teachers employed in six comprehensive high schools in an urban Southern California city. The researcher developed The Character Education Knowledge, Beliefs, and Practices survey instrument to collect data for this non-experimental correlational study.</p><p> Descriptive statistics and frequency scores found that teachers are not familiar with existing character education information, strongly believe in their role as character educators, strongly believe that preparation would enhance their practice, and do not frequently practice character education school wide strategies but frequently practice character education in their classrooms. Multiple regression analyses found teachers' school wide practice of character education to be significantly associated with their knowledge of character education information. Two-way analysis of variance tests found no differences exist between gender groups and years of teaching experience for any of the variables except in the case of classroom practices which found a significant interaction effect between males teaching eight to 15 years and males teaching 16 years or more.</p><p> The implications of this study highlight the importance of recognizing teachers' strong beliefs in their role to educate for character and their perspectives toward the value of preparation to enhance the practice of character education. The results not only clarity the gap that exists between theory and practice of character education but also suggest that more prevalent opportunities to educate teachers and future teachers in character education may be the next step to move toward a more comprehensive approach to character education. </p>