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The purpose of this program evaluation was to evaluate the implementation of the One-to-one Chromebook initiative in a rural school district in Virginia. The study used the goals of the district's technology plan as a framework to measure the effectiveness in the implementation of the One-to-one Chromebook Computer initiative in Grades 5, 6, 9, and 10. The study sought to collect the perceptions of stakeholders toward the program, the degree to which students engaged in the purposeful and effective use of Chromebooks as well as the application of technology to demonstrate students' knowledge of 21st century skills. The participants included school administrators, students, teachers and parents of students in Grades 5, 6, 9 and 10. This evaluation used a mixed method approach for the collection of data. The logic model served as framework to understand the inputs, activities, outputs and outcomes of the program. The findings revealed that there is a need to reevaluate certain aspects of the program, including the goals of the initiative in relation to specific parameters to delineate the use of the Chromebooks in classroom. Additionally, teachers and students need more training to become more comfortable with the tools that the device offers for instructional purposes. Two of the recommendations that emerged from the findings and conclusions are the creation of a new technology integration team and the use of SMART goals for teachers to plan strategically how to integrate technology in their lessons. This evaluation also suggests the construction of new goals to provide the division with new perspectives on how to continue the initiative, so that it advances from its current technology integration level to higher levels in order to foster students' desire to use devices such as Chromebooks to become part of a technologically inclined world.

The purpose of this study was to determine if low performing Central Florida teachers, according to Florida VAM scores, had related instructional practice evaluations that were being used to determine placement on improvement plans in the 2013-14 school year. Additionally, the feedback held within the instructional practice evaluations was analyzed to discover the levels of feedback most frequently rendered by administrative evaluators to the lowest performing teachers. Deidentified data from a population of 528 Central Florida teacher evaluations and improvement plans within the lowest 10% of VAM scores for the 2013-14 school year were gathered from a Florida Department of Education database and public record requests. Data were analyzed to determine if any significant relationship existed between VAM scores and instructional practice scores. A very weak relationship existed between these two variables. Tenured teachers were rated significantly more favorably on summative instructional practice evaluations than nontenured teachers. Within the population, fewer than 1% of low-performing teachers (two total) were prescribed an improvement plan, regardless of tenure or nontenure status. Finally, evaluation feedback was largely low-level without reference to student growth or achievement. Evidence of administrative barriers within the three dimensions of individual conflict avoidance, bureaucratic procedural interferences, and administrative procedural faults were inferred from the literature and subsequent findings. To improve upon the current evaluation system, administrators must be aware of, and well-prepared for the demands of evaluating, remediating, and providing feedback to teaching professionals relative to student achievement and growth in a manner that is simultaneously respectful, candid, fair, timely, and actionable.

The purpose of this study was to collect and examine the reported supervisory practices experienced by professional doctoral candidates in the last year of their program, and recent program graduates, within the last three years, from across multiple disciplines. Doctoral supervisors, specifically in the United States, are not usually provided a set of practices or concrete training prior to advising doctoral candidates (Walker, 2008, p. 35). With this in mind, and the limited amount of research available on doctoral supervision in professional doctoral programs in the United States, it was critical to analyze the experienced supervision of professional doctoral candidates and its perceived effectiveness. Current candidates and recent graduates were asked to participate in interviews based on the supervision they received. Ultimately, 3 current candidates and 15 recent graduates were interviewed for this study. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and then analyzed using grounded theory (Corbin & Strauss, 1990). The interviews were carefully analyzed for emerging trends that went on to represent individual supervisory practices, or concepts. After several additional readings the concepts were grouped together based on similarity into categories. Finally, the concepts and categories were analyzed for connections to candidate success, which developed into the findings of this study. Ultimately, candidates and recent graduates discussed 19 supervisory practices. The 19 supervisory practices, or concepts, were: frequency of communication, quality of communication, mode of communication, accessibility, feedback, the use of articles and research, the use of a timeline for candidates, utilization of the supervisor's existing expertise, workshop offerings, use of the supervisor's network, building a personal connection, showing enthusiasm, candor, trust, encouragement, autonomy, guidance, providing advice academically, and developing a colleague-to-colleague relationship. Each of the 19 concepts was discussed as having varying levels of impact on candidates successfully completing their programs. Doctoral supervisors, and doctoral programs, should consider the implementation of these supervisory practices and the training that helps supervisors develop their supervisory experiences.

Through decades of research and practice, evidence has consistently revealed that math instruction focused on the development of conceptual understanding through reasoning, dialogue, revision, and reflection has the greatest long-term impact on success and self-efficacy in mathematics. Despite these findings, many classrooms continue to employ instructional approaches that emphasize procedural practice. The purpose of this mixed-methods action research study was to examine the impact of instructional coaching in mathematics on teacher self-efficacy and instruction as they relate to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics teaching practice of facilitating mathematical discourse. Participants in the study included a mathematics instructional coach and three teachers in grades K-2 at a rural school division in northeast Virginia. Through a 6-week collaborative coaching cycle that included co-planning, curriculum development, co-teaching, and reflection, this study collected qualitative and quantitative evidence on shifts in mindsets and practices through surveys, interviews, reflective questionnaires, and classroom observations. Findings suggest that instructional coaching in mathematics has the potential to grow teacher self-efficacy through a focus on curriculum and content that includes expert support through modeling and feedback while building pedagogy in mathematics through an exploration of varied approaches to teaching math concepts.

Aurelius School District used Curriculum Associates’ i-Ready program, which was philosophically aligned to the science of reading and included i-Ready Diagnostic, i-Ready Instruction, and Teacher Toolbox, to improve Cole Middle School students’ reading achievement. Because of the high monetary cost of i-Ready, the school district was considering changing or ending this program. This pragmatic, mixed methods design, CIPP (Stufflebeam, 2003) program evaluation analyzed the fidelity of implementation of the i-Ready program through descriptive statistics (frequencies); assessed the effectiveness of the i-Ready program in increasing student achievement (on the Diagnostic, NC Check-Ins, and NC EOG) through descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, and range), Repeated Measures ANOVA, and correlations analyses; and determined stakeholders’ perceptions of the value of the program to inform recommendations to continue, modify, or discontinue usage of the i-Ready program (through surveys and interviews prior to qualitative review using open and axial coding). Based on the review of related literature, the i-Ready program was a coherent and adaptive assessment system and an effective instructional intervention designed to increase adolescent literacy, which occurred in grade levels where the program was implemented with fidelity. Because it provided staff and students with timely, understandable, and helpful instruction and data that helped students grow, recover unfinished learning, and improve their achievement, the i-Ready program was valuable and worth its cost. As the implications for positive social change, it is recommended that the i-Ready program continues in its current form with a few adjustments to motivate and encourage teachers and students to result in increased usage and engagement.

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived value of leadership experiences in preparation for the principal role within a large school district's Level II principal preparation program. A general trend in the research regarded the need for principal preparedness experiences, related to the realities of the role and the ability to impact the larger scope of student achievement, to be studied (Grissom et al., 2021, p. 45). The study analyzed if there were statistically significant differences in perception of preparation for the role of principal from novice principals. The Perceptions of Principal Preparation Learning Experiences survey was sent to novice principals in the school district who obtained a principal appointment in the years 2019-2023. Survey results were analyzed to identify specific leadership learning experiences within four constructs of job-embedded, mentoring, powerful learning, and professional learning that were perceived as most valuable to impact potential revision of the Level II district preparation program. Study results found that the Level II district principal preparation program supported learning experiences in preparation for the role of principal within the four constructs. However, the constructs of powerful learning and professional learning experiences were lower in perceived value than job-embedded learning and mentoring experiences. The results of the study showed similar results of perceived value across all demographic characteristic analysis resulting in statistically significant differences only in value of principal preparation learning experiences and Title I status as well as a moderate positive correlation between years prior to appointment and job-embedded learning experiences. No statistically significant differences were found in years of experience, age, ethnicity, school level assignment, or gender.